Jeremy Wade’s Ultimate FISH ALPHABET Challenge! | River Monsters

Yeah yep yep is a fish [Music] this is a large fish I'm feeling massively undergunned all I have to pull in this giant is a thin rod and a wobbly canoe that's the fish there I'm trying to stop the fish coming to the surface if it jumps it could spit out the Hook but it seems the fish is C in the shots heavy fish heavy fish heavy fish rod in a painful curve painful curve as the fish comes closer the danger becomes very real if it jumps in our Direction the results could be deadly coming

up it's coming up it's coming up it's coming up it's going to jump it's going to it's going to jump it's going to jump this is a lot bigger than any ARA Pimer I've caught before I need to get it into the shallows in a bit more please this fish weighs at least 250 lb keep holding cuz I'm ah look at this arim on a fly this thing it's actually I was going to say it's built like a missile this is a tired fish believe it or not two of us can hardly restrain it it

is just does it look like a mile Long streamline body I'm thinking about three times the size but the one that hit me sent me flying left me in pain for over a month this thing came flying at you hit you in the right place or we say the wrong place uh you wouldn't know about it just a final flashing fleeting moment and then lights out for good I think that's a strong fish this is the biggest fish of my South American Fishing Career a river monster as deadly as any Beast of folklore and if

you caught a glimpse of something this size color and shape appearing on the edge of your vision your mind could fill in the gaps here in Guyana where Legends of mermaids pervade local beliefs you might think that you've seen the water M but one thing's for sure there are arima here so massive they could easily deliver a fatal Blow and if that happened the river's scavengers would quickly clear away every last shred of evidence except perhaps a tidy pile of clothes this river is full of predators which like the sawfish come up from the sea

and there's one in particular that I'd really like to have a look [Music] at the baramundi is an ambush hunter that lurks near the bottom of the river then bursts up to snatch its prey to Provoke a strike from this fish Anglers often use a brightly colored lure worked near the the surface over deeper [Music] Water by perching on an island of rock I can cast into a wide area of river but steep sides and Jagged surfaces mean I don't have much room for maneuver this feels quite a good wave very very sharp rocks some

of these so oh there it is there it is there it is I just see a flash down there there It [Music] goes CL oops I'm climbing over here [Music] oh yeah bar Monday lovely not bad for 20 minutes work spiky old dorsal fin on there that's why you got to be a bit careful handling these also there's a very very sharp uh razor sharp bit of bone just in front of the Gill flap there uh plus I had all the hooks to extract on this Very uh precipitous bit of sharp Limestone here but here

we go fish in safely baramundi and just what a spectacular setting to catch it from okay it's not often you use a big fish to catch a small fish but after just 2 hours it's definitely worked oh oh oh oh oh what was that what was that I don't know the scientific name for all the SC scavengers at this gruesome picnic the Locals call these musum or snake fish [Music] ah and that is just disgusting that is horrible whatever it is I hate oh it is one of the grossest Sensations I think I've ever had

I quite like fish but I don't like this one [Music] there's little sort of lighter bits of material in there and I think what's actually happening you know the the Shock of these things being pulled out they're actually regurgitating bits of Flesh into the water hold on hold on hold on there's actually something a bit different in there uh if I can get it out I don't really want to shove my hand in there there there there there there there there there there there just hold him there we go so this is the candu assu

this is the fish that BS holes in The body and then devours from the inside out and it was this fish that they retrieved from those corpses in the mor this this was a heavy fish when it went in look at the state of that it is just you know it's just it's just been hollowed out and there's a hole here and that is you know it is it is just like a bullet hole except nothing would have shot this fish I mean it is just a perfect round perforation in the skin nothing left inside

in fact if I I Just rip it open a little bit the cyua Su makes no distinction between human flesh and that of any other animal floating in the Amazon just like a hollow case of skin with the remnants of the bone inside this is almost exactly you know what the Topsy report was in the morg except you know in in that case we were talking about a human being this water is obviously filled with flesh eaters so I try and entice Them to feed out of my hand I'm actually just on somebody's house here

and I'm just dangling this fish off the side and these karoo are just attacking right on the surface and they you know I can see from here the way they are just literally drilling their way into that [Music] fish it's like a crocodile St death roll and no doubt the cause of The Gunshot like entry holes in the Corpses I'm not trying to lift them out she just try and lift look at that hey there's one there and back in the water apparently these things will give you a bite just like a piranha look at

that that's very very definite cut and this is all the work of the Karo the Amazon River is a scavengers Paradise it's like an acid bath here for corpses and again it's me members of the catfish family that are one of the principal operators cleaning Up the bodies I'm going to try a different approach by using to my advantage the strong currents that swirl around the island maybe it was scent rather than sight that brought in the Predators that night there's a whole sardine on the end here and uh the boat is drifting so we're

just going to slowly drift uh we'll keep some get some Chum going in the water uh just to bring the small stuff In get some activity going and uh hopefully bring in the bigger Predators oils from these pieces of fish leave scent trails in the water and the Predators here quickly find my bait something fast almost empties my reel that fish um took right next to the boat look at that thing go leaping in the [Music] air the fish is des trying to throw the [Music] Hook [Music] then my line goes slack off oh no

it's still there it's just running towards me head need doubt about these Waters being rich uh here's a bit of confirmation [Music] there this is a good size Dorado [Music] on this clearly isn't a silvery as salant but it is a powerful predator in Its own right and worth a closer look beautiful fish look at that uh dado means gold but look at all the blue on there also known as mahim Mahi dolphin fish fish those acrobatic leaps are totally in character for a hunter that takes out flying fish it's still got a lot of

strength actually I can feel it flexing but despite their obvious strength and Agility dados have never been known to Pose a threat to humans off he goes strong fish no finally after 10 days of searching a giant electric eel is right in front of me that look like just one of these uh one of these branches one of these roots that is an electric heel it's a big one now I've got to work up the nerve to catch [Music] it I'm just making a bit of a trench From my point of view it'll be easier

to handle if there's some kind of sort of Notch that it's in rather than it's being able to slip and slide all over the place my normal capture method would be useless in water this shallow so out goes the rod and in comes a lasso fitting for cowboy country because electric eels don't rely on physical strength pulling it out of the water shouldn't be that hard but not Getting shocked will be so protective clothing is essential we've got a plan the plan is not so much to to sort of go after the head with the

Noose but to position that and then get it to go through the Noose just taking a few deep breaths because one slip and you know it could be very nasty indeed need to be so focused and so careful about [Music] this an eel this size can deliver a Shock of 650 volts that's enough to stop my heart in seconds first Go amazing first go electric eels can keep on shocking out of water but the rubber gloves we're wearing protect us from this look at the colors on this thing these are wonder I could to give

it a clean that is it's doing a sort of it looks like a muscle contraction spasm almost that's when it's actually shocking because electric eels get most Of their oxygen from breathing air they can stay out of water for long periods of time that's 5' 10 and a half that's pretty much exactly the same as as me this is exactly the same size as the eel that killed Francisco the 21-year-old man who died in the tiny pond near Villa NOA if I wasn't wearing these rubber gloves I could be dead too it's over 100° and

I don't want the Fish to overheat so time it went back in the [Music] water the pond may be shallow at the moment but the rains are not far behind me the waters will soon rise giving this eel the freedom to roam once again my search led me to this tiny drying out puddle I mean the water in there is barely 6 in deep it's the last place you'd expect to find a river Monster but that's where it was there's more there's more there's more there's not just this big one there's again it looks like

wood but it started moving we we were watching it and it looks like there's actually several but smaller right in with these roots [Music] here i' I've just never seen anything like this before it's like a tangle of bodies I'm just trying to count the Heads the more I look the more I see I was thinking 10 or a dozen I think there could be 20 down here this is an incredible Discovery and answers the final question about how the Cowboys [Music] died I believe believe a group of electric heels like this was trapped in

a pool over the dry season when the rains came the water levels got higher until the eels could All leave into the swelling waterways it was in these waterways where the trio of unlucky Cowboys came across them after their startled horses threw them into the water each one of these eels could deliver a fatal shock so a group of 20 would easily be capable of killing the cowboys after feeling around I've worked out that there's a flat shelf that then Drops down to the riverbed in this vertical face is an opening that goes back into

the bank in here is where a catfish could be hiding at the moment I can't tell how far the hole goes back I'll only find that out by sticking my arm in there you're just going to fill him up you're going to if you get in there far enough I mean he's going to be right here and you're just going to be able to maneuver him however you want if You get in there far enough you can just it'll be no problem know that you're you got people here to help you if anything goes wrong

and and basically as soon as you hear anything going you you're starting to pull me out anyway aren't you so yeah [Applause] [Music] I put my whole arm into the hole and feel around for what seems like an eternity but there doesn't appear to be Anyone home my lungs are starting to burn I get maybe not in there far enough is that the idea yeah keep going there yeah I haven't reached far enough into the hole as we feel around the opening something Rams our legs he's in there keep it blocked yeah he just swallowed

my whole foot y yeah yeah yeah we have to make sure that the hole is totally blocked so it can't Escape I submerge again then this time I go head first into the hole which just keeps on going and going visibility is zero and as I feel around something bites my hand hard wait wait wait wait wait I managed to get a good hold of it and bring it to the surface I finally noodled a massive catfish oh well that fish was lying there boom bit me once and let go and uh and then I

sort of fumbled around and then Uh actually reached into its mouth it's a creepy feeling I'm putting my body in there Dylan's feeding me in pushing me in head first into a hole under the water there's something that's going to bite me in there it's dark I can't see anything what a stupid thing to be doing you know just ridiculous but I mean as as fishing goes it doesn't get much more mad than that as Nate promised the catfish is still full of fight it tries to do a characteristic role if We can't control it

it has the strength to break my wrist oh that's doubling my luckily it decides to let me [Applause] go big flathead catfish I mean well named that head is flat that lower jaw poking up as well but just uh just what a beast it looks a bit sort of torn up it's uh some Battle Scars that uh adapost fin here should just be a normal Clean lobe and that's been split it's got a bit of a lump on it Tails a bit torn one possibility is these things move into Beaver holes and if there's a

beaver already in Residence you know the beaver probably takes exception and so you know these things have a bit of a tough time they got to compete for Real Estate down there this fish must weigh at least 50 making it a strong Contender for the contest considering the fish that Attacked Bobby Sparks was twice the weight of this one any doubts I had begin to dissolve I've been here for 3 weeks now and I've had three hits but still nothing tangible to show for all my efforts [Music] push on red the net okay I've got

to just get to keep pressure from above cuz there's rocks And I've got it's going to jump it's going to jump that's the float going to see the fish very soon going to see the fish very soon there it is that's the good fish look at that l nette l nette lyette careful Fred careful careful careful right we got to be very careful now ready for the N want to get the head In I got [Music] her okay oh we got to worry about now is it budging its way out okay [Music] we got the

fish we got the fish now I want to do something that fishermen never do when they catch one of these monsters have a look at it then release it alive back into the river the Mouth is going the fish is breathing that's good and the gills are going that's that's good this water is nicely aerated that's a good thing as well now those teeth that will just take lumps out of other fish it will take lumps out of crocodiles even and there are stories well documented of that taking lumps out of people wow there we

go what a fresh water monster this thing Is what I'm looking at here is the ultimate piranha those teeth just like a piranha's triangular sharp blades down the side and they interlock they they they interlock almost like scissors they will just cut a lump out two big differences though one is Piranha's hunting packs you know this is a solitary Hunter and the other thing is the size people who think the Piranhas are scary if they saw one of these Things I think their nightmares might be populated by a slightly different animal one sort of diabolical

anatomical detail on this fish is that it hasn't just got one hinge on its jawer it's got a dou hinge it's got one hinge here it's got another hinge there which enables it to open that jaw much much wider so it can almost open like that and just come straight in and take a really huge bite out of its prey it's just a murderous animal this Thing this fish may look inactive now but once it's revived a bit there's a danger it could slice me at any moment I actually don't want to let it go

too soon even though there's risk to me I stay in the water you know too long beside it but what I don't want is for this fish to swim into the powerful water and then just not be able to to hold itself upright it will just roll belly up and and uh probably get sort of battered on some of these rocks here so I want it to be completely recovered before it goes you know I want it to be able to swim off keeping itself vertical unaided I going to make mhm oh H oh yes

no no no no no no no no no no [Music] no we're having a little bit of a discussion here because Fred thought that we were going to take it back to the village for everyone to eat and I must admit that is quite that Is quite a nice idea he tells me this fish has been given to us by God MH he said even for the you know the fetier who gave me the charm you know told me I'd have success in the fishing you know send him a piece of the meat it's not

just our village it's the people over the river who've been helping you know it it would be it would make everybody happy but it wouldn't you know it wouldn't make me Well it would in one way but it would make me more happy to put this back um it's going to upset him as well if he sees this swim away I'm trying to explain the important thing for me is to see it and not to kill it I think it's very you know it's very important that that animals that we find frightening in appearance you

know that we try and understand them we don't just hack them to pieces and kill them and and then look at the dead body I mean I want to Look at this thing alive and then see it swim off if the fish dies because it has really you know exhausted itself fighting against me and in that that very wild Rocky water if the fish dies fine we'll take it back for everyone to eat if it doesn't if it recovers if it can support itself myself I'm going to let it go so we now just wait

and see after an hour the decision is taken from me as I feel the life slipping away From this monster you know it's just it's not going to make it so I mean the good thing is although the fish has died you know it it won't be going to waste [Music] to the people of the Congo the manger is much more than just a fish it is a spirit that pervades their folklore yet many people here I now realize have never seen this monster in The flesh I begin to suspect that for Fred returning this

fish would have meant much more than just losing a meal bringing this Fish Out of the Shadows into the light of day has been a Monumental task it's easy to tell myself now that my success was down to my persistence but I still wonder how much was down to factors outside my control or understanding no no le [Music] This okay [Music] a [Applause] but before I get another bait out the scientists call me over to take a look at the surprise they've pulled in it's a hammerhead shark well actually this one is called a wing

head I mean look at the width of that head and it is like some kind of underwater aircraft in a way I've not caught a hammerhead Before um so I mean this is impressive very strange looking beast but I think what this really brings home is that the Esty here is just full of predators another Marine Hunter following in the salty Tides but the more Predators there are down there the lower my chances of hooking the one I'm after Mr tochimoto accompanies me on my hunt he has been studying the hanzaki In this River for

the past 30 years he Knows their habits and where to find them but not only that hanzaki are a protected species so if I wasn't assisting Mr tashimoto in his ongoing study I wouldn't even be allowed to get near them this animal has sharp teeth that will cut my fingers if they actually went anywhere near its mouth so I've got my bik proof Kevlar gloves on got to go down with this underwater camera just try and see if I can find one see where It is and then go down and try and grab it at

a waterfall he tells me he has caught hanzaki here in the past it's a good place for them to hunt there are plenty of fish here I try the other side the current is surprisingly strong and I'm not entirely sure what it is I'm hoping to confront but I think I've hit the jackpot there's one down here or it might be two there's a tail sticking out About 4 or 5T down in the water but it's right underneath this rock it did move as I came past it did sort of Shuffle further in though the

problem is I just have the tail a little bit of tail sticking out so hold the tail grab tight okay okay so grab tight and then in the net okay I'm worried it might double around and have a go at me reassured by Mr tashimoto with my new and peculiar weight belt I go in to confront my monster it is a tough and Robust animal so I need to get a firm grip for its safety and mine I am way out of my comfort zone this isn't a monster I can catch on the end of

a line I've got to use my hands [Music] another weap I have caught a hanzaki better known as the giant Japanese salamander one of the largest salamanders in the world and the creature that I believe is behind the Kappa [Music] Legend they get bigger than this but wow this creature is aggressive even though we mean it no harm okay the good thing is that these guys unlike fish are just as at home on land as they are in the water pretty soon he calms down that is a hanzaki noodled and I'm very pleased even with

my gloves on I my hands stayed away from that mouth uh he wasn't too amused by The fact that he was just pulled out of his whole light that but this I think is the creature I've been after looks a bit like a fish but it's got hands and that's exactly what this has got Mr tshi Moto is monitoring the health of the hanzaki population along this River it's nearly 10 lb measuring weighing and micro tagging every one of his catches counting all the digits all Normal so that when he recaptures them he can build

up a clear picture of how this incredibly rare animal is faing in the wild best part of a yard long and now we have collected a new one for his study this is an animal that hasn't been caught before it doesn't have a chip in it so that's a really good capture normally I wouldn't be allowed to touch this but the fact that I'm acting as Mr toim Moto's assistant means that I'm able to work with this Animal there are only a few pockets of these endangered giant salamanders left in the wild these creatures that

haven't changed since the age of the dinosaurs their survival is an important part of Japan's natural heritage and when I try to release it this National Treasure still makes one last attempt to bite me before disapp appearing unfazed by his [Music] capture we set out again in one of the Small fishing boats to try and net one just like those dead fishermen did a couple of years ago the difference is our intentions are not to kill the kuga but a huge thrashing monster doesn't know that because I might come into contact with a sturgeon I'm

going to have to be careful just by handling it I could get injured sturgeon actually they have these bony scoots down the back and down the sides and on a small one they've got quite a sharp point on but With the time they they reach a big size those points have gone they've been worn down so um gloves very necessary for handling particularly small sturgeon we set net after net each drift and retrieve taking over 2 hours after being on the river for half a day we finally net our first sturgeon it's not a kuga

though but an Amor sturgeon small am sturgeon so this is the ordinary sturgeon and the mouth on this Is It's like a telescopic tube that comes down so that's not really the mouth of a predator they will they will eat small fish when they reach a large size but it's more for uh just sort of sucking up crustations and and things like that smaller food items on the bottom of the river we carry on setting Nets in the hope of catching a rare kuga one thing that that demonstrates is that when you're netting the choice

of Mesh size is actually very very critical um we're working with sort of like 3in Square meshes here and which seems to be the perfect size for the smallest sturon apparently in the old days for the when the kuga were running really big In this River they used to use a mesh where each square of the net was about a foot square give some indication of the size that these fish used to grow to even though our mesh size is smaller it's still capable of tangling a giant Kuga we've nearly exhausted all the spots on

this part of the river but just before moving off bubbles breaking the surface of the sign of something big coming up from the bottom oh more bubbles here that is our big fish after weeks of searching I finally caught my first kuga so this is it the kuga sturgeon of the Amur River now this is big by normal freshwater fish standards but by the standards of what this fish can Potentially grow to this is a small one but I've never been so happy and relieved to find a fish alive this fish would actually overpower you

this this fish you know you would not be able to hold your own in the water against this and a big one of these 15 ft long I can well believe now the stories of those smashing boats sending them to the bottom so they're never found again I'm afraid that the last of the Giants may be gone but as fortunes can still be made from the fish that remain this story can only end in tragedy for the kuger and sometimes for the fishermen who still hunt them illegally despite having heard those stories of uh deaths

and disappearances the real victim is actually this fish which we' fished very hard for well this is the biggest one that I've seen um this thing's been hunted really to the edge of Extinction all for the sake of Its valuable legs that's really very sad and uh I really hope that this population comes back but even in the face of this human Onslaught Nature has a surprising ability to cling on [Music] [Music] [Music] oh push on push on yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah this is a beast that means business And it doesn't feel like a

shark good size good SI it's coming in quite close it's already Qui get on these rocks in here I need going to need someone to grab it it's ready it's ready I think oh it's a sawfish it's a sfish at last the animal that's been swimming around on my head for nearly 20 years let's get this way out the way here we go my first Sfish look at this for a beast this thing nearly 7 foot long that's bigger than I am and that Rostrum on there that's a foot and a half long it's got

39 of those teeth each one is about an inch long wickedly sharp got a huge dorsal fin a very big second dorsal fin very big tail and they anchor the body and when the body flexes it's this head and this Rostrum that really sthe from side to Side this about to tense we about to have a splash yeah here we go [Applause] [Music] yeah this journey began almost 20 years ago in the heart of the Amazon I stood staring at a vicious looking weapon and wondered if I'd ever see its owner in the [Music] flesh

now in a remote River in Australia I finally got my hands on a live sfish I Hold that down the scientists meanwhile think they figured out why these creatures come into fresh water it's flat on the rroom Dave's latest measurements show that they're using the Fitzroy as a nursery acoustic tag going in here despite all the Predators it's still safer here than in the sea only when they reach 8 or 9 ft long do sawfish leave the river as an adult living in salt water this fish could One Day become a 20ft giant but I

came here to find out if this fish is also a monster in terms of deed now there's no doubt that that fearsome tooth Rostrum is potentially a lethal weapon and it's certainly been used as such in the hands of humans but I can find just no instance at all of this fish having attacked a human being willfully in other words its monstrous appearance is not matched By Its Behavior certainly if you're a small Fish this thing is a deadly weapon but from the human point of view the sawfish is the archetypal gentle giant if anything

these vicious looking creatures seem to be more sinned against than Sinners the thing is with these fish it's always the Weaponry that the attention is drawn to the Ros him with all those teeth but actually looking at the rest of this fish this animal has been in the wars it's been on the Receiving end of quite a bad injury there's a big bit of its petral fin here missing and it's a very clean curved cut and it's slightly raw as well which suggests it's fairly recent that would be a bullshark and look at that the

saltwater crocodile thought it would have an easy meal teeth just bounced off that hide so this is not just an animal with a very sort of fearsome weapon on the end of it snout it's just really tough as well I Mean it just Shrugged off that attack it really is a a rough tough environment down there and it does seem that you need to be tooled up in some way or other just enough in order to survive the tragedy for this fish is that in a world full of Nets the very weapon it needs to

survive is now liable to get it snagged and killed my only fear as it swims away is that we may be seeing the last of these ancient and extraordinary monsters [Music] with all my lines back in the water I sit and wait again it's barely 5 minutes before something bites one of my baits something's on the float and from the way it's taken off I can tell it's big [Music] every time it comes close to the surface it takes fright and goes down again here it Is this is only a small one Siamese carp are

said to grow nearly 10 ft long and reach over 600 lb it's up in the fish St Cal for a second there we go it's got a very upward turn mouth this fish so no surprise that it took a bait in the middle of the water column it's got plenty of weight to throw around yet its rubbery mouth is completely toothless so no way that this could slice through anything or Anybody just a [Applause] really what I was going to say is a really pretty fish this vegetarian Lacks the hardware to make it onto my

suspect list I'm upping my game maybe a shower of meaty smelling fish pellets will tempt a flesh eater onto my [Music] line it's another bite and this Beast feels much bigger than the last One let going entire L of the leg to keep the line clear of snags I have to get in the water it's heavy not wanting to show itself I keep thinking it's nearly ready and then it just goes off again Could This heavyweight perhaps be the mong's mysterious mutilator as long as my feet are firmly planted to come I'm not in danger

but one more powerful ring bench on my line and the fish has the [Music] advantage I'm just touching the [Music] [Applause] ground it takes 40 minutes of backbreaking struggle before I start to gain the upper hand let see the fish [Music] that's the fish on theace this is one of the biggest freshwater fish on the planet large meon catfish very hard to Hold up very heavy but also just incredibly powerful I can't think of any other fish this size which is this powerful and one of the reasons is this huge tail here but it's also

all the muscle that powers that and there were a couple of moments I thought I might go on and be towed into the middle of the lake meong giant catfish can grow to well over 600 lb but there's no way this fish is capable of tearing into a Human I can't see any teeth if I put my hand in there there's nothing at all so although this took a very um strongly flavored fish bait which is quite unusual for one of these which is normally herb all vegetarian there's no way this can uh can cut

or slice anything or anybody despite its size this giant is no more a suspect than a toothless carp or an endangered Turtle I've got to watch my footing if I Fall in I'll be sucked to the bottom of this churning water in seconds Crocs are hard to see in the water at the best of times but the foam produced by the falls gives them the perfect cover this could be my most dangerous fishing location yet anything takes that bait it's a large bait it's going to be a serious size fish so you know one thing

I've got to really be aware of is I don't want to Be pulled in here oh fish on went a bit slack then but the water is just moving around so much it's actually gone into it's actually gone in some of the water that's coming towards me this feels a good size because it's it's actually coming with the current it's up coming out to the surface coming out to the surface that's a good size fish gosh that's a good size this fish is actually going with the current all right let's just stopped There it is

on the top on the top on the top I think the fish is tired but there's a real weight of water behind it it's right in the side here it's right in the side right in the side it's tied out I can't see the fish cuz they're just all that foam how about that how about that right I've just put a bit of heavy mono through its uh through its mouth what I'm going to do going to just pull it back into the water walk it around Here into some quiet water where it can recover

when I can recover as well I'm just hoping if those Crocs that they I prefer the fish to me it's already starting to get a bit more strength back but I want to make sure it's fully recovered before I have a proper look cuz if it goes back in this water not properly recovered it's just going to get bashed possibly to death on these rocks I'm going to need the help of my Boat driver ety as this fish is too big to lift by myself there 112 lb of with the net we got to deduct

a little bit for that but that's well clear of 100 lb okay and then up okay right this is one lump of a Nile perch well over 100 lb and just what an amazing setting to catch it from big old fish and Bush prad is a great big paddle of a tail there but at the business end look at this you don't have tentacles like a catfish you Got big eyes and then you've got this protrusible jaw and when it actually opens that quickly it's almost telescopic and it just engulfs fish by creating a a

vacuum the water just rushes in and one other thing just to say look at that for a defense it's like having 6in nail sticking out your back finally I've caught the fish that shows monster Nile Purge can still be found here in Africa's Rift Valley nice to see it go Back tell you what though if I was a fish I would not like to live in this water I mean some of the other stuff that's in here particularly the crocodiles and also just the sheer strength of this water but I mean just what a dramatic

setting to catch a fish like that as the name suggests oceanic white tips are true open ocean Predators they are able to travel huge distances between feeding when prey is Scarce in the vast expanses of water they travel through they are constantly on the alert for any unusual occurrence I'm going to test whether sound in the water can bring sharks in to investigate the source I'm putting a low frequency tone through the speaker a shark's hearing is adapted to very low frequency vibrations such as those made by struggling prey the sound from this speaker has

an Underwater range of around 800 ft spreading out in three dimensions that equates to over 80 million cubic feet of water now all I have to do is wait [Music] Finn just broke the surface right here right here right here heading this way I'm guessing about 6t under the water it's a lone oceanic white tip and it's coming in and it's just feet away from the speaker It's actually just within 3 ft of the speaker but one lone shark doesn't prove my theory one here fin out of the water right there was just one I

think you know there's there's at least two now ah right right by the speaker just 2 3 ft away I think if I was actually in the Water that would be very ominous to see that I mean I'm I'm safely or relatively safely clear of the water at the moment but um these sharks are definitely interested they've come in from I don't know where they were but they've come into check out this situation and the sharks aren't leaving they're sticking close to the speaker the sharks are circling they're Just hearing the sound and they are

they're circling me I'm encouraged that this experiment appears to be working but I'm now surrounded by sharks longer than my tiny kayak I'm a little worried they're becoming too interested in me right here th on the surface going down I get the feeling that I'm being followed I think one of the creepiest things is actually the fact that you know when you're diving you've got a Mask you can actually see clearly when you're above the surface the surface is broken like this you just see that very ghostly gray shape oh there's one right here right

here right here and it's coming back without an obvious food source they've started to turn their attention to the kayak it's time to turn the speaker off off eventually the Sharks lose interest In both the speaker and by kayak so it does go to underline if an event happens it's worth them checking out the Amazon River is 4,250 M long twice the length of the Mississippi it is mostly wide and slow moving but at this distant trivet Tre it is quite the opposite a fifth of all the water on Earth passes through the Amazon and

piranhas and their relatives are found in just about all of It it's a Fisherman's Paradise and it's full of River Monsters and there a fish on that's a fish on oh there it is there it is jumping out the water that's quite strong that's a strong fish I've hooked a predatory fish with dental Hardware straight out of a horror movie so this is a pyara it's a relative of the piranha it's an arms War down there everything's got teeth everything Is eating everything else and they've actually got those fangs there in the lower jaw and

they use those to puncture the swimbladder of the prey so it just messes up the boy and sea the small fish is then totally out of control it's flopping around near the surface and these will just come along afterwards and mop them up and those fangs are that big that it has to have special holes in the upper jaw otherwise it wouldn't be able to get its mouth Closed so there's probably you know some very precise engineering going on out of sight that we we can't see this vampire likee creature shows how evil looking the

piranha family can get but despite its looks it is not the fish responsible for attacking people this is a solitary Fish Hunter yeah yeah nice to meet you hey nice to meet you hello there on March the 14th 2007 just here in the river mouth Terry hessie caught a 9 and 1/2t long female bull shark estimated to weigh over £500 this all looks like pretty serious stuff yep we free out rods and reels we we using one of these completely blown away with the idea of using you needing to use that in a river these

guys are serious I'm impressed they're fishing in this busy working port on the frontier between sea and fresh water I mean one thing I'm noticing already is attention to Detail they've got a comprehensive plan to outwit the super the sensory capacity of this shark Terry Begins the journey across the river mouth to place the baits bullsharks have been reported to Ram kayaks taking the paddle Splash and Rudder movements for the thrashing of a fish in distress Terry's okay but in getting these baits set in the dark I've injured my index Finger it's going to make

things things difficult I'm just hoping that this and the disturbance from The Busy Port doesn't damage my chances pick it up pick it up at 2:30 a.m. fish on with the tide high the line begins to run in no off it's all right yep shuffling down at the moment it just feels like there's a boat on the end there just a dead weight just changing the ratio there yeah yeah that's pulling That's pulling that's pulling it is coming my way and with nearly 200 yds of line taken in whatever it is reaches the shore what

is it that is huge one the best P I've ever seen man this moner is not what I expected to catch to me J to me J it's not a Shar but it is an exceptional fish it's just remarkable that is something isn't itz I've never seen anything like this in my life Before it's what they call the queens and groper this is a monster I mean it's not the monster I was after but this is a monster looking it 6t and 3 in what about the girl yeah 2' one it's gir is 4' 3

in 4' 3 in this is a protected marine fish normally found on reefs but they're known to come into River mes like this on rare occasions look at that this fish even ter and Ben haven't Seen anything like this anywhere like this size you know so it's just an amazing catch and particularly from a river just you know this thing really is a river monster groupers have an extraordinary trick this £ 250b male actually started Life as a female when there are too few males in a spawning group a female will switch sex to keep

breeding numbers up time though for this gender bender to Head back home to me that just underlines even more than before that you know we just have no idea at all what is down there in our Rivers I begin fishing again now fully aware of the strength of this creature but the difficulty will not be bringing it in or even Landing it what worries me most is getting close to those jaws yeah yeah bigger one bigger one bigger one there it is look at that it's Really big it's really big this could be the one

I've been looking for I know there's snags on the bottom so I'm trying to keep it away from that yeah just see it this black water can just see it down there yeah yeah yeah oh yes need to just keep it away from stuff on the bottom but there's also people's houses in the water just need to keep it away from that at the moment it's in Open Water that's good I'll get it well and trly Tired out before I try and do anything with this one then I need to examine it without losing a

chunk of my hand going to rush it oh and that actually just take a look at that as I lifted it out that straightened the hook as I lifted it out oh now this is interesting because I've just been seeing small ones of these that is that's a different animal From what I have been catching this is more of a size so the coloration on this is actually quite different from the small ones the small ones have a very dramatic red belly which on this so that's sort of faded away to this rather light orange

but the biggest difference is a gosh very muscular fish just gave a bit of a kick There this is all muscle here so it's a very strong fish very powerful but um I'm just oh I'm just trying to look at the business end here just look at that on the small one they were quite delicate teeth on here I mean those are real real crushes what this fish normally feeds on in the Amazon is seeds and nuts and you know they often have tough cases to be open so these teeth basically they're Nutcrackers this thing

really does look like a giant piranha but the teeth on this not designed for cutting but for crushing and tearing ing seeing those teeth reminds me of all the stories I've been told about the attacks on people it's like human beings biting onto my leg those teeth really do look uncannily like human teeth and to be bitten by those you know I think that Would be a very creepy experience it would be just like being bitten by a person I didn't an experience that I were P get come on they said that when a piranha

bites when it actually bites you don't know what's happening because it's such a clean cut but this would be a very Jagged messy tear and I think you'd certainly know about this when this bit you and if these fish hear something splashing in the water they don't go hitting the opposite direction like Other fish they come heading for that sound with those teeth Bears I'm left in no doubt that the paku is the ball cutter a vegetarian turned Maneater an outsized piranha with a taste for human flesh an alien Invader running a mock dominating entire

stretches of the seic river the river people now accept that the bull cutter is something they have to live with it's just a graphic example of the unintended Side effects that you can get when you start meddling with nature when sock I salmon come out of the sea and enter fresh water the males undergo a monstrous transformation they develop a hooked jaw and grow teeth to defend their spawning grounds not only that both the males and females turn red and stop feeding so they won't go for any bait or fly what you're doing is you're

you're casting out you got a lump of lead here and you Flick it 45° Upstream it comes down and the fish are all facing upstream and the idea is they you got their mouths open just gets in their mouth that panics them they run and as they run that ends up in the mouth so it feels like a strike but um and that will be in the mouth probably like that um but they're not actually going for it that's the theory I'm going to see if I can put that into practice time to try and

get my first Salmon there you go you got it wow he's off actually hooked one that was a bit of a surprise I was the line just was ticking down and they haven't really spooked off too far just ticking down it just stopped and I was I think I was a bit too surprised and I just pulled I should have sort of actually tried to set the hook a bit more on that one with this many salmon around it's not long before the Bears start returning to their fishing spot here's a Bear just coming out

of the brush on the far side whereabouts is it Glenn he's just looking out of the brush watching for Sam oh yeah yeah yeah yeah and I mean that's a very definite Fisherman's posture isn't it even though it's you can tell he's ready to pounce down water within minutes three large Grizzlies have surrounded us our day on the river has suddenly become Dangerous oh this is absolutely typical you find a good spot somebody else comes in tries to lb you out but I think I think in this case I'm going to make a graceful Retreat

he may turn back towards us too cuz there's fish between us and the bear and definitely a good time to keep talking keep making noise way if he has his nose down under the water he can still hear us and doesn't end up you know popping out of the water right Close to us and having to make a decision about how it's going to react with the Bears this close I can pick up some fishing tips I think it needs a bit of practice that's almost almost on a level with my early fly fishing attempts

I think they wait till there's a bunch of fish congregated right underneath them and then just jump right on top of them that way I cuz I guess I mean you know bit like a human fisherman there's lots of Fish there even if you're a bit inept you're still going to you're still going to get something yeah once they've moved off a bit I can carry on trying to catch my first salmon but these Grizzlies are putting me to shame fantastic to see these Bears close up I wasn't really expecting that um you can see

they're semi- aquatic but I don't think this is the lake monster but I think you could call it in some ways a bit of a river Monster here we go believe it or not this is the first salmon I've ever had on the end of my line This is a fish that can swim hundreds of miles up these fast flowing rivers to get to its spawning grounds so it can put up a strong fight right fish has done me a favor it actually has turned off the main flow I'm so engrossed with catching a salmon

at first I don't notice our interested Onlooker out of the water out of the [Music] water okay okay right I think we're going to R break the fish off stand a group oh oh no hey does he want the fish this bear is clearly not afraid of us and that's a problem we just break it off we're going to break no we're just going to break the we're going to break The fish off this is a young Grizzly but although not fully grown it could still attack and kill any one of us luckily it's more

interested in the salmon than us it took my fish and a minute later it's back for more this time we need to fire a warning shot he I'm going to fire away he's getting too pushy oh no you guys plug your ears just deep breaths just calm down It's all all part of the uh the day in the life of a fisherman in this part of the world yeah it's a fish it's a fish is it no it's off it's off I've Just Seen A fish come up for my fly it was in the tail

of the White Water there and uh I think I probably pulled it out of its mouth I should have just given it a little bit longer it's very hard on the Heat of the Moment you just Get this reflex you see the fish I want to set the hook but uh ah but they're here they're here and they're coming up [Music] after feeling the power of the timman I believe that a big one could pull me off balance and into the water I need to keep my [Music] footing suddenly there's something big on my Line

yes yes yes yes that's a fish that's a fish I've got to come down there I've got to there I mustn't let the line snag on the boulders or it's game over right I can see it I can see that red tail right now just take it easy now big red tail this is a good size fish I see the fish really well going out into the current there the bigger they are the harder They fight and this one's fighting with all its strength to get away from me the adrenaline is pumping and my brain

is telling me to keep a constant tension on the line or this fish will throw my hook okay it's spinning it's spinning it's spinning it's a Twan job bringing this timan in and our first attempt fails this is now difficult cuz the line Is around the body of the fish I've lost control of the fish I can't bring it out of the strong current janga has to go out into the middle of the river to grab the timan hopefully without getting bitten after an intense nerve-wracking battle a very long journey that began back in my

childhood comes to an end time on a fly wow what a fish what a fish amazing fish This is a rare Beast I'm lucky to see one this big right oh the size of the head in this thing wow and look at the mouth on that just looking at this thing now you can just tell how well adapted it is for this predatory lifestyle in this vast water very very streamlined body but this huge mouth and the teeth in there are just angled you know they almost come back flat which is why they're not immediately

visible and it's even got Teeth on the tongue if it sank those teeth into me it could do some damage I can feel this one still has a lot of fight left in it it's time to return it to its element what's really nice is this fish is just flexing this fish is ready to go I'm gently supporting it by the petral fins just taking the weights but Jack's still holding the tail I think as soon as we let go the tail it's going to support itself it might think for a Second second or two

and then I think it's going to be gone back into this fast [Music] water I was worried that I might never catch a timan but I was lucky enough to catch two in the same spot to me this is also an indicator the fact that the top predator is still here shows that this river is still [Music] Alive for the time being at least this is a healthy River and just what an amazing sight to see the line of draw is tight it's it's really hard to undo the uh the knot here which can mean

it's a fish so it's me to make sure that once I've untied it I've got a good on it okay ambering over the hooks here hands on the hooks don't like that well Okay I'm getting absolutely soaked but I don't mind that if that's fish he there a fish there a fish there a fish the stories I've heard are racing through my head and I'm thankful to have the chief controlling the boat most fishermen here normally go out alone I thought I felt something else possibly something moving something moving down there two fish can mean

double the power hey that's kicking That's kicking I got to be care got to be careful it doesn't pull this line out and some of those other hooks flying but fortunately it looks like they've already lost a lot of their power strugg to get off the lines I mean luckily these fish have probably been on the line for a little while let's get all this line well clear from me and I can feel something else pulling I think there's something pulling on the end of this one there is That's that's a kick definitely I'll just

get this hook sorted [Music] there we go [Music] oh wow how about this how about this nothing nothing nothing and I think it could have been the rain that uh well it's quite possible it was the rain that got them going three nice size Sunny there three very nice size the weather's Kicking off though I mean it's it's coming it's getting worse that's lightning I want to have a look at these fish but I think you know priority should be get back to the Village have a good look at them there my priorities I realize

have changed 25 years ago I left the Congo feeling cheated for not having and caught the big fish I return determined to settle the score but I'm leaving feeling humbled by this Great River and The people who eek out a meager existence in this Crucible of violence again I didn't catch the big one maybe they're no longer here but I did discover that the three I caught could be more than capable of pulling a fisherman overboard if you're using the Hazardous local methods instead of just being abstract jottings in my notebook you know I came

to really understand how those accidents could have happened uh you're in a Narrow wobbly canoe maybe there's waves and wind complicating the situation there's a fish on the end it's pulling and you just lose your concentration for a moment or happen to slip at the moment when that fish makes a lunge you've got a a loose hook flies through the air very easily it's in your hand it's in your leg you're over the side and actually in that situation even a fish this size you know you're not going to have a chance against it this

is going To pull you wonder you cannot pull against a fish even this [Music] size I Ed the large float that I've used before but out in these Creeks it's hard to know what is a fish and what is a [Music] snag hey [Music] but these snags are more than just potential fishing hazards with half-hidden roots and Fallen trees Navigating this waterway at night is a disaster waiting to happen and it seems every Creek has its Cayman to make matters worse I hear a Rumble of Thunder my window of opportunity is about to slam shut

this could be my last chance to catch a wolfish [Music] oh wait wait wait wait oh off off off no think that could have been a Piranha that took it into a snag I think it could be time to uh call it a night these things are very active at the [Music] moment with the storm edging ever closer and hungry piranas seemingly beating any wolfish to my bait I'm considering calling it a knight but then I make a discovery I what a minute I've got a scale here I've got a scale that looks like a

small wolfish the storm is closing in but so are the wolfish I Decide to fish on [Music] on here we go here we go finally a strong take it's a wolfish the monster I've spent the past 3 weeks trying to catch here we go and it's a big one over she comes but fantastic here we go that's a result that's a result that's lovely so here we are this is the wolfish and the stories I've heard about these absolutely Fearless anything comes near them dogs people they'll go for it so it looks like it looks

quite Gap toothed but actually pull those lips back and you see they're very spiky fangs underneath there the other thing about it is the fishing is just unlike anything I've done before um it's real gorilla Close Quarters hand-to-hand combat almost my quest for the wolfish has pushed me to my Limits damn it seems appropriate that I've had to push deeper and deeper into the greatest rainforest in the world to find the most Savage and Untamed river monster to date the piranha gets all the Press but this guy delivers the goods it's well armed with a

fearsome set of teeth but it's also fiery and fearless attacking animals and people even out of the Water and I'm convinced this is the fish that possibly pound forp pound is the toughest most monstrous fish of South America there it is the wolfish [Music] the EO might be an artificially created environment but it is far from Barren with Wildlife being drawn to it from all over for its Rich pickings we've got here a very rare white vulture there's a just loads of Griffin vultures nesting in this this rock here it's just purpose Built sort of

like a block of flats for vultures yeah you can almost smell the hadock pellets that the fishermen use here as bait and I seem to be giving off some confusing odors of my own yeah I've been fishing in the Sun for a few days now I didn't realize I smell quite that bad but it's bringing the vultures in Jurgen my guide has witnessed the continuing growth and aggression of these Catfish you know every every fourth or fifth fish now is over 100 or 120 lb and and they catch in hundreds of them over over the

year and just in a little stretch of the river so the population is so so big that now never it should happens uh before as not in Spain that's what I mean so this is the place to be careful if you if you're going swimming we had some attacks we had you know especially releasing cfish sometimes they're really bit on it and then you See seem like big U an big sea you know the mark of the cish she had you for a second let you know fish on great it's a fish Xander nice fish

not what I'm after but some of the fish that are in here that will go in sideways won't it this is the adult version of those small fry that we saw earlier although spiny they are still food for catfish Off he goes fish are weightless in water but even a fish like this not even beating its tail just the momentum of it just the mass of it coming through the water displac