Craig Butler Bristol Channel Sea Angling Coach & Guide

16/07/2026

The past week has been a busy one assisting Minehead middle school with activities week where we had 36 super mega keen junior’s fishing over 3 days at Minehead Harbour. 12 junior’s each day saw them competing in a fun 3 day competition. 3 day winners and an overall best junior of the week. With prizes donated by West Coast Tackle / Angling and myself. The heat wave conditions were testing but fish were caught. Full report and photos available when the school releases permissions.
Also a couple of great coaching sessions at Watchet Harbour for young Kody who really wanted to catch a smooth hound so we made that happen and for Lynsey who also caught a smooth hound along with several small congers. Unfortunately the hook fell out of the smooth hound when lifting it out and it slipped back in which was frustrating 🎣🐟

07/07/2026

With the school holidays coming up. Short two hour sessions are now available 🎣🐟

10/06/2026

I’m honored to be welcomed to the Riot Baits Pro Team. Thank you for the opportunity and support. I’m excited to represent the brand and look forward to journey ahead 🎣🐟

🔥 Meet the Riot Baits Pro Team 🔥

A group of anglers who share our passion for fishing, our products, and our brand.

Thank you to everyone that applied!

Welcome to the team. 🎣

01/06/2026

Last weeks half term weather was exceptional. This saw at least 8-12 local juniors out fishing in around the harbour every day and possibly 20 of them in all over the week. As well as being a sea angling coach my job as one of the harbour masters allows me to interact and educate the youngsters .
Every day last week over high water was spent helping and advising all those juniors with everything from fishing tidily and keeping the harbour clean of angling related litter to safely unhooking and returning fish safely.
a good few of them over the week being first timers,they kept me on my toes every tide. One of the highlights was helping one of the juniors fishing for the very first time who didn’t know how to set up ,too within an hour catching a small bass and the very next day seeing him catch a smooth hound.
We even managed to donate a couple more rods and reels to local newcomers to get them started. Thanks to James Thomas and Mark Perry for the generous donated rods and reels
Looking forward to the school summer holidays when i know they will be out in force loving their fishing it really is great to see a healthy number of juniors out fishing 🎣🎣🎣🐟🐟🐟

27/04/2026

It was a pleasure to welcome Max a Royal Marine Corporal from 40 commando in Taunton for a guided /coaching session over the weekend . This was 3rd time lucky due to the conditions or work commitments previously. Unfortunately the best laid plans doesn’t always work out ,as on this occasion not even a bite was had. All wasn’t lost as we visited 2 separate venues several miles apart during the day so Max has at least a few high and low water marks to return to with confidence. Looking forward to welcoming Max back in the next few weeks on another local mark where hopefully we can find him a fish or two 🎣🐟

15/04/2026

I recently had the pleasure of introducing local lad Elliot to shore angling after his mum got him a coaching session as a Christmas present. We held back the session until spring and the hope of better conditions and a few fish.
It didn’t take long before Elliot was up and running. After covering all the basics from beach safety to basic set up. It was bites and fish from the first to last cast it was the perfect start to his sea fishing adventure.
With a total of 9 dogfish and a whiting and a lot more bites along the way it was non stop from an hour before high and two hours down. All in all another great coaching session and hopefully another youngster hooked and confident and keen to go again 🎣🐟

03/04/2026

It was a pleasure to introduce Rob from Exeter to sea angling recently. Rob has always coarse fished but fancied his luck on the beach. So with a high water coaching session planned for a midweek evening tide we got to it.
Thankfully conditions were good and it wasn’t long before baited rigs were out and Rob caught his first fish from the sea.
It was an unusual catch in a fresh stone cold dead Pouting that had been smashed by something trying to eat it. It was uncanny that not a single bite was registered especially as the Pout was well unhinged. All in all a pleasant evening and a pleasure introduce Rob to help him catch his first fish from the sea. Now to look forward to the next few coaching sessions booked in over the Easter holidays. Great to be back focusing on the coaching side of things 🎣 🐟

02/12/2025

Possibly our last squid session of the season was capped off perfectly recently.Didn’t get the bigger early season numbers but the size well and truly made up for it and to sign off with a mantle of 51cm and a huge girth to the body it was something else to catch and admir. Along with a few others around the 40cm mark in a total bag of 26. There’s something I can’t quite put into words about catching these awesome creatures. Its awesome fun exciting and a challenging one to get it right switching things up or down slow or fast to get the best of it 🦑 🦑 🦑 — with George Stavrakopoulos.