THE ULTIMATE ANGLING BUCKET LIST

I even had quite a big one on a pirk in the northern Norwegian fjords which came as something of a
surprise. And while the species has occasionally also been caught from the shore, don't expect to see
this repeated any time soon.
BLUEMOUTH Helicolenus dactylopterus
Bucket List status – result outside of home waters
Bluemouth are both related to and in
many ways also visually similar to
norway haddock, but with a preference
for very much deeper water, where if
you find them, they can be about in
plague proportions.
A red, spiny, large eyed, big headed
fish. The main point of difference
between it and the norway haddock is
that as the name suggests, the interior
of the mouth is blue.
Sean Palmer, Dingle Bluemouth
There are other easily checked out
features too, one being that the
connecting membranes of several of
the lower pectoral fin rays do not
extend to the end of the rays, giving
the fin a sort of 'gurnard-like' quality.
Colouration and markings, which are a lighter shade of red with more obvious darker banding, can also
help set these two fish apart, though unless you have both species to hand for comparison, this might
not always be immediately obvious.
In home waters, fishing not necessarily in, but certainly very close to deep water is an absolute must.
At the time of writing, the British record is held by a Stornoway fish, which if my memory serves me
well is a port that has turned a few others up over the years.
In Irish waters, the west facing Atlantic coast offers the best prospects. Back in 2009 I had a report and
pictures sent through from Irish angler Sean Palmer who caught good numbers of them well out from
Dingle.
Further support for this area being a 'hot spot' comes from the Irish record which was taken just the
other side of the bay out from Caherciveen.
As for my own personal encounters, these have all come from southern Europe, showing the huge range
of distribution this fish has, providing the depth is right.
I picked a few up in seventeen hundred feet of water on small fish baits off El Hierro in the Canaries
while fishing for six gilled sharks. But far and away the most I have ever seen fell to the same tactics
off the southern tip of Gibraltar where we were specifically targeting them.
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