Before we start, we just want to confirm, we are NOT affiliated,
sponsored or in any way connected to Sports Quest Holidays or Nordic Sea Angling (in fact I bet they wish we weren’t here!)
This site is for the sole purpose of telling you about our Fishing Nightmare of a Lifetime and allow you to make your complaints against said companies and we will publish them on here.
Our Experience
I’d like to start by just getting something out of the way, we fish regularly (VERY regularly!). We understand the vagaries of sea fishing from a boat, the weather, fish not there, fish not biting etc. This has NOTHING to do with that, NOTHING whatsoever.
This is to do with being scammed by a company we thought we could trust. I’ll explain.
We booked a 6-day guided boat fishing trip at the Lofoten Islands, Norway for October 2024, billed as a halibut and plaice trip.
We knew there was going to be a problem with the weather, we had been watching all the forecasts and they were giving the same outcome. Irony is if we had not got out at all, we would not be making this complaint as we wouldn’t have known better!
We were picked up at the airport by our 2 guides, Axel and Gus. They kind of hinted that the weather wasn’t looking good as well. Hey ho, that’s fishing. After dropping us off, they came back later to discuss plans for the following days. They suggested going out for a short trip the following day, which we agreed.
Next morning, we were down at the boat at the requested time (early as per usual). Due to the weather looking bad later that day it was decided we could not go far out. First thing, we go and catch some bait. At least, that’s what we thought. Feathers on, and we were immediately into small coalfish. Then more small coalfish and then even more. We took some expecting to use them as bait for halibut or whatever, the rest we were putting back. We moved to where “the bigger fish were”. More small coalfish. As we were talking to the guides they then said, “We don’t know why Sports Quest keep sending people, the fish are not here, and we have told them!”. They hated the fact that they would be blamed for the poor fishing and the fact that people were not returning to fish with them. They said this was due to the sea temperature having gone up and the commercial overfishing. It was affecting the whole of
Norway. Ok pockets of fish were around and occasionally a good catch was possible, but it was no longer the norm. The size of the fish had also gone down. In fact the stocks were considered so low that from 2025, anglers were to have their
take home catch reduced from 18kg per angler to 10kg!!! Nearly a 50% reduction!!!
Great first day! That put a bit of a damper on the trip!
It was decided as the next day was going to be the best weather day of the week, we would go all out to give it our best shot. So we left early (ish) and went out. Despite our best efforts, tried numerous rigs, jigs, bait etc. the best we could achieve was a 5lb codling and a 4lb coalfish. Some holiday of a lifetime. During the course of the day, a halibut rig was only put out for about an hour. On our return, we met with some locals who had been out. They recommended we DON’T USE a guide but saying that they confirmed what the guides had said that the fishing was not what it was, they only managed a small halibut themselves and one double figure (12lb) cod.
Overall the rest of the week was mainly called off or drastically cut and kept close in due to the weather conditions, but I’d like to bring to your attention one particular trip.
They asked if we fancied trying a plaice trip as we could fish close in, close to our accommodation (a few minutes away). We agreed. Using the rigs they gave us; we caught a few nice dabs and a small plaice. Axel had a special rig and was doing
better than us with bigger and more fish. He offered one of his rigs to Rob. Very quickly Rob got the hang of how to use it and started to catch some big plaice. Due to the rig, the fish were deep hooked and had to be dispatched. Gus decided to move us, didn’t say why. But as we started to catch plaice again, he said we would have to move as we were depleting the stocks. We had 5, YES 5 plaice!!! Stocks must be dire if that’s the case. He moved to a spot opposite our camp where we caught NOTHING for an hour then we went in.
Sports Quest's Explaination
At the end of the week, when we came to settle up our fuel bill, we were asked for £270, £90 each. We did not feel we could tip on this occasion; in fact this is the only trip I have ever not tipped a guide, but we felt we could not do it especially when we knew they had overpriced the fuel. On our return to the UK I spoke to a good friend who had been out earlier than us about his fuel bill. When he checked, he had 5 days out, 12 hours a day, long way out, drifting and his entire bill for the week was
£230!!!
On our return I spoke to Paul Stevens. I believe in giving a company or individual every opportunity to resolve a problem amicably, its good for both parties and ensures our trust in them. But as it turned out, Sports Quest Holidays are not a company to be trusted.
I explained what had happened to Mr Stevens and waited for his response. He said that the guides were being “retired or let go” from Nordic Sea Angling and they may have been acting in a disgruntled manner. He would have to go back to Nordic Sea
Angling and speak to them. He returned the call later and said they denied telling us that. He then told us that he felt like “a piggy in the middle” between the 2 companies. I then informed him, our contract was with him, not Nordic Sea Angling, there was no piggy in the middle in our case, it was with Sports Quest. He offered us firstly £500 off another trip with Sports Quest which I discussed with my colleagues, which we turned down. He then offered £500 each. Mr Stevens then went on holiday.
We got a response from Mr Collingsworth; he was taking over the problem. Again he offered £500 off another holiday, which we again refused. He then denied that £500 cash had been offered. I wrote back saying as they could no longer be trusted, we wanted ALL correspondence to be in writing from then on, we/I would take no telephone calls from the company.
When I questioned Mr Collingsworth about the fuel charge, he told me it was because the boats were heavy!!! I wrote back and said my friend was using a 25ft Arvor boat which is considerably heavier. I asked for the engine type so I could confirm the fuel usage. Guess what? No reply! Both his company and I are friends with a former guide of theirs. He advised them I knew many good skippers and anglers and would NEVER have started this action without good reason. Mr
Collingsworth threatened legal action against Rob on their Facebook site but when I intervened and DARED him to start legal action I got no reply, still haven’t.
As for the poor fishing, they have tried to deny there is a problem with even a flaccid (like a limp handshake or other appendage) reply. I have presented them on both email and Facebook with clear evidence that there is a problem with the fish stocks. It is totally clear an issue exists with MANY commercial fishing sites stating the dire state, even asking the Norwegian government for major cuts to quota to ensure and
hopefully give fish stocks time to recover. Some of these reports are as recent as September 2024. See this headline from a Norwegian fishing industry site :- https://thefishingdaily.com/latest-news/winter-brings-troubled-times-for-norwegian-fisheries-warns-industry-leaders/
WARNING
This is not the only one, I have sent Sports Quest others as well.
As I have seen Sports Quest advertising trips for Norway next year with big fish and loads of them, I would advise you not to take up their offer. If you do however and you have a poor trip, please feel free to contact me on your return and maybe we
can start a group legal action against the company. They have CLEAR and unequivocal evidence of a problem, but they are advertising as if there isn’t.
They have stated we could have called them. As I stated, “and what were they going to do?”. We had the best chance the day after we were told there were no fish. We had trouble getting Sports Quest to get a guide in the first place so what were they
going to do? Fly us home? Return our money? Apologise? They haven’t done anything so far apart from make stupid comments, lie or refuse to answer reasonable questions.
If you have had a holiday with Sport Quest or Nordic Sea Angling and had a problem, please email me with your details and we will post your complaints here. Anytime in the past is fine.
As for Gus or Axel, if you see this website, please contact me, I’ll post your comments here. If Nordic Sea Angling confirms what Gus and Axel told us, we will remove their name from this website and others.
As for legal action by Mr Collingsworth of Sports Quest Holidays, as I said on Facebook, go ahead, I’d love you to do that, I’ll see you in court.
Joe Blackham