Spanish Mackerel Open Welcome

June 13 – 15, 2025, at Intracoastal Angler and Motts Channel Seafood

WELCOME

Welcome to the Spanish Mackerel Open, an easy and friendly way to try out nearshore/offshore tournament fishing, as well as a chance at some strong cash payouts. This event is also a great avenue for exposing kids to fishing (for many of us, spanish mackerel fishing was our first experience trolling in the ocean) and get the family spending more time together on the water.

Those that have fished with us before will notice that we continue to keep the date of the event in June. Our goal is to host the event when the spanish mackerel bite has more and bigger fish, and we also want to make sure our date is after the traditional school year lets out so that as many young anglers as possible can fish with us.

Like last year, the weigh-in location will be on Wrightsville Beach at the convenient and centrally located Motts Channel Seafood docks, but new this year, we will no longer be at Wild Wing Cafe (thank you, Wild Wing, for all the memories—you will be missed).

This year we’ll be hosting our Registration, Captains’ Party, and Awards Dinner at Intracoastal Angler. You’ll see our big HQ tent set up in the side parking lot, and we very much thank the David family and the crew of Intracoastal Angler for all their hospitality and for making us feel so welcome.

We’re returning to the same popular format as previous years, with a Captain’s Choice, pick-your-fishing-day format that allows teams to select the best weather day of the weekend, or (as is the case for many households) the day that conflicts least with a demanding schedule of weekend commitments.

All Fisherman’s Post events are family-friendly, but we particularly want to encourage the fishing community to get the family and kids involved with this fun tournament. To that end, we’re continuing to offer not just one but three Youth Angler divisions (Junior is ages 0-8; Pre-Teen is ages 9-12; and Teen is ages 13-17). The winner in each age group will receive a cash payout, and every youth angler in all three divisions weighing in a fish will be brought up on stage at Sunday’s Awards Ceremony to be celebrated and receive a Spanish Mackerel Open medal.

To make sure everyone has a good time, Friday’s Captains’ Party will host all the water and soda you care to drink, as well as an array of adult beverages (from Adams Beverages/Anheuser Busch) because parents need to have fun, too.

Returning participants in the event will likely remember Sunday’s Awards Dinner, where we’ll have lots of Papa Murphy’s pizzas, grilled hot dogs, and fresh, golden-fried spanish mackerel (some of the tournament fish weighed in on Saturday and Sunday) to enjoy after a strong weekend of fishing.

The rest of the spanish mackerel will be donated to First Fruit Ministries. First Fruit Ministries began in 1998 and has grown to serve over 20,000 hot meals, provide emergency groceries to over 5,000 households, and shelter over 24 homeless women and families annually, and they will receive the donation of all spanish weighed in that aren’t used for the Awards Dinner.

So rig up your Clarkspoons and daisy chains, gather your planers and trolling sinkers, put a couple of live bait rigs on the boat, tie on some casting metal, and come out to Intracoastal Angler on Friday to sign up and get in on the action.

Gary Hurley / Tournament Director
(910) 452-6378
spanish@fishermanspost.com