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INTERVIEW: River Monster’s Jeremy Wade

Hi Jeremy, thanks for taking time to talk to Fishing World. Where did your interest of exotic destination fishing come from?

I started fishing in the UK and my interest was fishing in rivers rather than the sea. It’s a small country and after a while the mystery ran out and I started going further afield. I’d given up fishing and happened to see an article about a fish in India called the Mahseer and that lodged in my mind. A few years later I booked a ticket to India and packed some fishing rods in a plastic tube. I didn’t really know what I was doing. I had a hard time, fell ill, but I caught some fish and wrote a couple of articles about them and it went from there. It started as fairly low key, I was trying to get away somewhere every one or two years and go for a few months. I’d save up and have a shoe string budget. I had some spectacular failures where I caught nothing at all, but in the long run, this is where it led.

If you could fish anywhere in the world, where would it be, and why?

That’s a hard question. One place that does hold a special fascination for me is the Congo. You’re very unlikely to find any other people there from the outside. The reason being, logistically it’s a very hard place to fish. The red tape can be difficult to penetrate.

I was looking for a place that was almost pristine – a place that has not changed throughout time, including the fish. Most places in the world now, sadly, the fish numbers are down on what they were even 50 years ago. Large parts of the Amazon you won’t find much at all because of the commercial fishing and that goes for many other places. There is commercial fishing in the Congo as well, but compared to other places it’s not so bad and that’s the sort of place I’m looking for.

What are some of the highlights of the latest season (Season 4)?

One of the highlights was part of what we did in the US. I tried my hand at this technique called “noodling”. There’s no rod or any gear at all – it’s just using your hands to catch catfish. You catch them at a particular time of the year during summer when they are nesting.

It’s a method that was devised way back in the midst of time. If you put your hand or foot in the bank, chances are there will be a catfish there that won’t take kindly to having its breeding site disturbed and will bite on your hand or foot. What happens from there is you grab the fish and pull it out – it all gets very intense. I actually had to go completely underwater and had someone holding my ankles feeding me into a hole. It’s quite hard to get the drama across on the TV because you’re in zero visibility and all the action is happening underwater.

We also fished the far east of Russia for kaluga sturgeon, which is unusual for sturgeon because they are very predatory. That was quite sad because the numbers of fish are down. It’s fished for its caviar. The value is potentially huge for the local people. They have such a long life cycle and that part of the population is threatened. I did get to see Kaluga but it’s very much something that appears to be on the way out unless something drastic is done.

Closer to where you are there was one program with the glyphis shark. It’s so rare there’s no common name for it. It’s a rare shark that will hang around in estuaries and is known to go in freshwater. It’s somewhat reminiscent of a bull shark, but it has distinct other features. Only a handful have been caught on rod and line. We took the gamble to see if we could catch one and sometimes there’s luck on our side and we managed to get one.

Can you share any scary moments or close calls during your travels?

We had a plane crash in the Amazon just river 10 years ago. I was filming something pre River Monsters, a more low key documentary. We had engine failure at fairly low altitude where you don’t have many options. What was interesting about that was we had cameras rolling at the time. We all survived without a scratch. The interesting thing was we all agreed that the time elapsed between the engine failing and actually tearing through the [tree] canopy was about three minutes. When we watched the footage back it was actually 14 seconds! It was an interesting insight into how time can be elastic and when there’s lots going on, in retrospect, it seems much longer.

Any travel advice for for fishos who want to get out and explore these remote places?

Number one is just common sense. The difficult thing is navigating the human environment. In places where customs are very different you can offend people. It’s always very much based on teaming up with the locals. Trying to learn a bit of the language is vital I think. I’m not a natural linguist and tend to put a fair amount of work into it. Even a few words go a long way, it shows that you’re making an effort.

The big handicap with fishing is always transporting fishing rods. I love travelling light, but with fishing rods you end up dragging around a large tube or case. The great thing now is the quality of multi-piece rods which are so much easier to carry. That’s a huge advantage.

It can be frightening going to a new place and I think that’s one of the attractions. You push yourself beyond your comfort zone. Again, I always feel so much better when I’m out of the cities. Cities can be a bit hostile, but once you’re out in the countryside, as a general rule, people are much friendlier and you can generally relate a bit more.

Finally, is there any other fish or location that you plan to travel to?

I’m at the point where where most fish on my list which have now been ticked off. When we make a film we basically only need one fish that’s big enough. It’s not about multiple catches. So when I catch one, very often I’ve cracked the technique to catch that fish. So in terms of the film there’s a number of places where once, possibly once I’ve finished this filming phase of my career Id like to go back without the cameras, because I know there’s always a bigger one I can catch.

Thanks for taking time to share your stories with us, Jeremy.

Thank you.

inline_642_https://yaffa-cdn.s3.amazonaws.com/fishing/images/dmImage/SourceImage/red tailed catfish on the Araguaia River Brazil credit Icon Films .jpg

Red-tailed catfish on the Araguaia River, Brazil. Photo credit: Icon Films.

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