Skip to playerSkip to main content
dmdmdtvs
  • 4 months ago
River.Monsters.S07E01.Canadian.Horror
Transcript
00:01My name is Jeremy Wade.
00:03It's gonna jump, it's gonna jump.
00:04For years, I've been tracking down dangerous fish.
00:07There it is, there it is, there it is, there it is.
00:09In some of the remotest places on Earth.
00:12A lot of fresh water wants to this thing in.
00:16I've discovered that behind even the most outlandish tail,
00:19there is often a real creature.
00:23Now from a watery wilderness
00:25come stories of a frightening and almost unbelievable beast.
00:29You could see the coils of a giant serpent.
00:33It had the intention to eat him.
00:35But what is this sinister animal?
00:37And is it really attacking people?
00:40It's time to find the truth
00:42about Canada's mysterious lake monster.
00:59I've investigated legends of lake monsters from all around the world.
01:06Typically, the stories are tied to a single body of water, such as Loch Ness.
01:11But I've recently come across an intriguing exception.
01:15Across a huge expanse of Canada, there are reports of strange snake-like beasts.
01:21Sometimes as long as a bus.
01:23Allegedly, these creatures have attacked and even killed people.
01:28Most sightings are little more than a fleeting glimpse.
01:33But one thing that keeps cropping up is the sinuous, elongated shape of this mysterious animal.
01:40I know that snakes can grow to a monstrous size.
01:46It is huge. It is absolutely huge.
01:49Big enough to swallow a man.
01:52However, to get seriously big, reptiles require a warm climate.
01:57I find it hard to believe that a snake the size of an anaconda could survive in Canada's sub-arctic waters.
02:05But if it's not a snake, then what on earth is this lurking menace?
02:12My investigation begins in a place where there have been multiple sightings.
02:21Eagle Lake lies deep in Canada's wilderness.
02:25The best way to get there is by air.
02:30Incredibly, the province of Ontario holds more than a third of the world's fresh water.
02:37Eagle Lake alone covers an area more than four times the size of Manhattan.
02:43These valleys were carved out by the glaciers which once smothered this region.
02:49When the glaciers retreated, they left behind thousands of deep icy lakes.
02:56Plenty of space to hide a monster.
02:59But the fragmented nature of this water world means I have to rule out an obvious suspect.
03:06White sturgeon can grow to 20 feet long and they are known to swim up rivers.
03:11However, there's a problem with the sturgeon theory.
03:16These are landlocked lakes and sturgeon are migratory fish that are only found in waterways connected with the Pacific Ocean.
03:25If the stories I've heard are true, then these waters must be harbouring some other large and dangerous beast.
03:33This place really does have quite a mysterious feel to it.
03:48We tend to think of lakes as large open expanses of water but this lake is anything but.
03:54And we've now entered this creek that is just winding away as far as I can see.
03:59And this connects to another open area.
04:02And it's very easy here to lose your sense of direction.
04:06You know, it's a bit of a maze, a bit of a labyrinth.
04:14It's not the water but the rocks that offer up my first faded bit of evidence.
04:25Just come across these rock paintings on this cliff face.
04:30This one here, clearly a person holding what looks like a spear in one hand.
04:35There's what looks like a turtle here.
04:40And I'm guessing these are pretty old.
04:43These images could be thousands of years old.
04:46And among them, there's one that catches my eye.
04:49This one here, well, you know, it's open to interpretation but it doesn't take a lot of imagination to see that as something snake-like.
05:01Maybe that is the water serpent.
05:04It may just be coincidence.
05:07But I'm eager to track down the descendants of whoever drew this symbol.
05:12Perhaps they'll be able to add some crucial details.
05:19Eagle Lake is the ancestral home of the Migizis or Gagan people, an ancient tribe of indigenous Canadians.
05:27They still live here in a small settlement on the northeastern shore.
05:31I need to tread carefully though.
05:39I've been told they may be reluctant to speak to outsiders about unusual sightings.
05:49But tribal elder Robert Kelly is willing to talk.
05:53That serpent, it does exist.
05:57Do you have a name for it?
06:00Our people say...
06:03K'chiginevik.
06:07Stories of this beast have been passed down through generations.
06:11Those guys there, elders, even my parents, have talked about the great serpent.
06:18People talk about something surfacing from the water and then go back down slowly.
06:25Do people say anything else about the way that it looks?
06:32Any details at all?
06:35The ones that they have seen in the water were dark, almost black.
06:41It sounds a bit like a super-sized eel, but anything that's as big as people are saying is going to need a good supply of food.
06:53I'm curious to start finding out what's actually living in this deep, cold lake.
07:02Unlike a lot of the water that I fish, you've got quite amazing clarity here, so the chances are any predators here very much use the sense of sight.
07:11And even down at 40, 50, 60 feet, that's going to give off quite a flash, fish are going to see it.
07:17There might also be a little bit of a throb as well when that moves.
07:20But that's basically going to mimic a small prey fish.
07:27Canada is new territory for me.
07:30I'm not entirely sure what to expect.
07:32What I'm doing, I'm not actually casting this lure off the boat, I'm just lowering it down into the water.
07:39It's just giving short pulls which will make it flash and throb and then let it flutter back down again.
07:45I'm using a little bit of gadgetry to help me see what's in the water.
08:02There are solid lines above the bottom, which is some kind of fish.
08:06But until I get it on the hook, I don't know what it is.
08:10I don't know what it is.
08:16Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
08:28In Canada's remote interior, I'm investigating reports of a mysterious, but surprisingly widespread, lake monster.
08:36The indigenous people describe it as big, black and snake-like.
08:42My first job is to find out if there's enough prey in this water to feed something huge.
08:49Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
08:50Well, this is a lake trout, a predator in its own right. It took a spoon that was mimicking a small fish, so that's a big predator's mouth full of teeth.
09:06But it's the lake trout's exceptionally high fat content that interests me.
09:14It wouldn't take many of these smaller predators to sustain a monster.
09:19And as I continue to fish, the lake trout keep biting.
09:30Well, I think the conclusion's pretty clear. The water down here is just teeming with fatty, nutritious fish.
09:37A perfect bite-sized morsel for any larger predator that might be down there.
09:43Clearly, there's lots of space here for a monster and plenty to eat.
09:50But to start working towards a positive ID, I want to meet one of the few people on this lake who claim to have actually seen the beast.
09:59With their own eyes.
10:02When I eventually track him down, though, Leonard Skye seems wary of saying too much.
10:09I mean, when we see something, we don't really go and broadcast it all over the place.
10:17You'd be deemed a lunatic if you do.
10:20It takes a while for Leonard to come round and tell me about his strange encounter.
10:27We were going across the lake in a boat with my clients.
10:35One of the fishermen then spots something odd in the water.
10:43I looked at it.
10:45I said, that can't be it.
10:48It was big.
10:50Like an overturned boat, about 20 feet or so.
10:55So we went in to investigate.
11:00And that thing sank.
11:06And then we turned on our sunar and there was nothing there.
11:14It just disappeared.
11:16Leonard has spent decades on this lake.
11:18But what he saw that day was unlike anything he'd seen before.
11:23To him, it was Kachiganabic, the Eagle Lake Serpent.
11:29To me, it's totally perplexing.
11:32So whereabouts on the lake did you see this?
11:34Right in front, way over there, where the sun is shining on the far horizon, called Spirit Rock.
11:44For the Megizzi Sorgagan people, Spirit Rock is a sacred place.
11:50People are not supposed to point towards the rock.
11:55Is that because people respect the place?
11:57I respect for the spirit that's there.
12:04It's said the spirit can be placated with an offering of tobacco.
12:09But even so, anyone who goes near the rock does so at their own risk.
12:19If it really is the lair of a large unknown creature, then I intend to find out.
12:24Predators will often stake out the deep water alongside a drop-off.
12:30So islands can be ideal ambush spots.
12:33I'm wondering if Leonard's monster vanished into a cave.
12:37But this isn't something I can find out with a rotten line.
12:41I'm reckoning my best chance of seeing what's down there is actually getting in the water myself.
12:46But I have to say I'm more than a little daunted because the visibility is actually not that great.
12:51And if there is something down there, I'm not going to see it until I'm pretty much on top of it.
12:57In winter, this lake is entombed in a foot of ice.
13:02But even in the summer, getting in the water is a bone-chilling experience.
13:06Below the surface, the bottom falls away on all sides.
13:22But there are no obvious cracks or hiding places.
13:25And the entire area seems eerily devoid of life.
13:34There's nothing here. I've not seen any fish. And that's strange.
13:38I've drawn a blank at Spirit Rock. But I'm not giving up.
13:48Back on land, I hear about someone who was recently attacked on this very lake, right next to the shore.
13:55Something grabbed him. He tried to pull him under.
14:01Could this be the work of the mysterious Lake Serpent?
14:04On Canada's Eagle Lake, I'm trying to identify an elusive snake-like beast that people here call Kachiganabic.
14:23Sightings of a similar 20-foot animal have been reported from across this region.
14:28But nothing I know of fits the description.
14:32Now, I've heard of a recent attack on a human.
14:36If the culprit is the shadowy lake monster, then bite marks on the victim could be the key to solving this mystery.
14:46Eager to get more details, I tracked down a man named Gord Bastable, a witness to the attack.
14:53What exactly was it that happened in the water down here?
14:55Well, we had a bunch of kids down in camp here.
14:59They were out in the water down on the beach.
15:01They were just forcing around like kids do.
15:08One of them is 11-year-old Billy Belinsky.
15:15He's standing in very shallow water when, without warning, something slams into his leg.
15:23Something grabbed him and tried to pull him under.
15:27Fortunately, he was in shallow water, so he could pull himself off and get to shore.
15:34But, really, if it had been in deep water, it could have been a whole different story.
15:39The boy isn't here now, but Gord has a photograph of Billy's wound, taken just minutes after he was mauled.
15:50It looks like someone's taken a pointed knife and just gone round and done a semicircle.
15:54The crescent-shaped bite is rather like that of a shark, and bull sharks are known to live in fresh water.
16:06But no bull shark could ever reach this landlocked lake, let alone survive its icy temperatures.
16:12Has anything like this ever happened before?
16:16Never, never. I've been on the lake here for 35 years, and this was a first.
16:23There was a lot of commotion, which is very odd to attract any kind of fish.
16:28So, what do you think did this?
16:34Well, there's only one fish that has the confidence to actually pull that off, and that would be a muskie.
16:40A muskie?
16:42There are several muskies hanging around in the creek area and the beach area that week.
16:45The muskie, or muskelunge, is a truly formidable beast.
16:53Fast and extremely fierce, this supersized pike sits at the very top of this aquatic food chain.
17:01Muskies are known to reach a hefty 70 pounds and can target a wide range of prey.
17:10Fish, muskrats and even ducks are all fair game.
17:16But in over 30 years of investigating freshwater attacks, I've never heard of a muskie sinking its teeth into a human.
17:25Until now.
17:32Can it really be true?
17:35I need more evidence.
17:37A bit of digging soon turns up another, even bloodier account of a muskie attack.
17:42There was a couple out canoeing.
17:48The girlfriend was paddling, and the guy had his feet dangling over the front of the canoe.
17:56All of a sudden, something come up and grabbed his foot.
18:00It takes 60 stitches to close the wound.
18:11So muskies can be far more aggressive than I realized.
18:17But does this large predatory fish match the descriptions of the lake monster?
18:24There are certainly some intriguing parallels.
18:28For a start, the muskie has an elongated and somewhat reptilian appearance.
18:33More tellingly, perhaps, its range correlates very closely with lake serpent sightings.
18:41And finally, the muskie has been observed lifting its head above the water in a very unfish-like way.
18:47A behavior that's also been reported for the supposed lake serpent.
18:54Things are starting to come together, but the only thing that really doesn't compute is size.
19:01Muskies don't grow as big as these creatures that people say they are seeing.
19:07From talking to locals, I learn of a huge jawbone, supposedly from one of the biggest muskies ever found.
19:18It's kept in a small fishing lodge, close to where it was discovered.
19:24I'm hoping there's enough of it left to deduce the full size of the animal it came from.
19:30This is the lower jaw of one of the biggest muskies ever recorded.
19:35It was found washed up at the water's edge near here.
19:39The first thing that strikes me is just the size and the sharpness of those teeth.
19:45Each stiletto tooth is more than an inch long.
19:49And the jaw's shape perfectly matches the semicircle of puncture wounds on Billy Belinsky's leg.
19:58This muskie had a mouth like a bear trap.
20:01But how long was it, nose to tail?
20:03Based on the size of this jaw, the whole muskie would have measured something like five, maybe six foot long.
20:11Very big muskie.
20:13But it still falls considerably short of the size of this lake monster.
20:18But having said that, there's no other candidates in the frame at the moment.
20:22Maybe I'm missing something.
20:24To keep my investigation moving, I need to see this fish in the flesh.
20:31So I'm heading to a stretch of river where huge muskies are said to lurk.
20:36The exact spot is a closely guarded secret.
20:39The only name I've been given for the place where I'm going is location X.
20:46It's actually on a Native American reservation, and as a rule, outsiders just aren't allowed there.
20:51And I'm only being allowed to go there on strict condition that I don't say where it is.
20:55This is as far as I can go.
21:02And this...
21:04From here on in, my guide is taking me off the grid.
21:09At our secret riverside camp, I start to prepare for the challenge ahead.
21:28Muskies are notoriously hard to catch.
21:31Not for nothing are they known to anglers as the fish of 10,000 casts.
21:36Some have spent an entire lifetime in pursuit of a single monstrous specimen.
21:43My time, however, is more limited.
21:46So the gear I choose is going to be critical.
21:50So how do I tempt a muskie?
21:53Well, what I know about them is that they hunt very much using their sense of sight,
21:57but they've also got this lateral line organ that picks up vibrations in the water.
22:00So I'm thinking lures that have got a lot of flash and movement to them,
22:06but also lures that are going to make a lot of noise in the water.
22:10With a bit of luck, I will get to a point where I put something in front of them
22:15that triggers their predatory response.
22:17To have any chance of success, I also need to think like a muskie.
22:26The muskie are going to be tight to the bank, out of the main flow.
22:32It's where the small fish are going to be, it's where they are going to conserve energy.
22:35So cast as close to the bank as I can get them.
22:40If anything's going to bring a fish, that's going to be the tactic.
22:50Most fish would be scared off by the noise of lures like this.
22:54But muskies are fearless predators that are just as likely to investigate a disturbance in the water.
23:00After more than five hours though, I'm still waiting for a strike.
23:12This is absolutely perfect time of day for predators to be on the prowl,
23:30but I've not felt anything on the line.
23:33But I have felt every cast, the throbbing of the lures,
23:37and I can be pretty certain that the fish down there have felt that as well.
23:42By the time I turn in for the night, I must have racked up close to 500 casts.
23:55I'm learning the hard way that the muskie is an extremely wily opponent.
24:03And now, there's another problem.
24:05During the night, a freak storm funnels straight through my camp.
24:11And in the morning, my worst fears are confirmed.
24:17The banks here are formed of soft brown clay,
24:22and the runoff has turned the river into a muddy soup.
24:30The water level has come up, it's still coming up,
24:32and the visibility has gone down from about two feet to about two inches.
24:36And for a predator that feeds largely using vision,
24:41that's not a good sign.
24:42If a muskie can't see my lure, it's unlikely to bite.
24:48This is an intensely frustrating situation.
24:52One of the components of my limited access here is limited time.
24:56I've got three days.
24:58The thing is, that's at least how long it's going to take for this water to clear.
25:01So really, you know, I have no other alternative but to pack everything up and try and find somewhere else.
25:13Big muskies are few and far between, so this is a serious blow to my investigation.
25:20But my guide tells me there is one other place I can try.
25:27Rowan Lake is as deep as it is remote.
25:32Maybe this is where I'll find a giant.
25:35And with it, perhaps, the missing clue I'm looking for.
25:38A way to make sense of all those unexplained sightings.
25:42This place is a real wilderness.
25:45It's probably true to say that nobody has ever set foot on a lot of this land.
25:53Unaffected by the recent storm, the lake's crystal clear waters look ideal for a muskie hunt.
26:02This is beautifully clear water. I can see the bait very distinctly.
26:07But I'm not looking at the lure so much as the space behind it.
26:12About three, four, five foot behind to see if there's something following it.
26:15Following it.
26:20Though ferocious, muskies are also cunning.
26:24Before hitting a lure, they'll often stalk it, sometimes right up to the boat.
26:28So every time the lure comes in, I keep it circling in the water for several moments before lifting it out.
26:36And most times there's just nothing there.
26:38But once in a while, you lock onto the shape of a fish.
26:42I'm now well past a thousand casts and still waiting for a lucky break.
26:51Yes!
26:53That's a fish.
26:55That's a fish.
26:56Yes, yes, yes, yes.
27:03What does the name muskielunge mean in the native language?
27:07The answer right after this.
27:09I asked, what does the name muskielunge actually mean?
27:15It's a Cree word that translates as deformed pike.
27:19On a remote Canadian lake, I'm on the hunt for a giant muskie.
27:29This elusive fish appears to match eyewitness reports of a sinister lake serpent in every detail but one.
27:40Lengthwise, it falls far short of the 20-foot beast that people say they've seen here.
27:46Ah, yes!
27:50But maybe the fish on my line will provide the missing piece of this puzzle.
27:57It's a toothy predator, though not yet the one I'm after.
28:02This could be a good sign. The pike are feeding.
28:06But to be honest, the fish that I'm after could inhale this in one mouthful.
28:11The northern pike is a fast, aggressive predator.
28:14But for a big muskie, this would be little more than a bite-sized snack.
28:24As the hours pass, I try every conceivable combination of lure and location.
28:33I think there's a pike on. Here we go.
28:34I'm having absolutely no problem attracting pike.
28:40Another pike.
28:42But its bigger, uglier brother is nowhere to be seen.
28:47Another pike.
28:51It's a pike again.
28:52It's a pike again.
28:54I catch pike after pike.
28:56It's a struggle to stay focused.
28:59And then, to compound my frustration...
29:02Oh!
29:04F***!
29:05I'm impaled by my own hook.
29:07I'll just take it.
29:08Yeah, absolutely.
29:14Ah!
29:16The pike's off.
29:18I hooked myself.
29:19The best hook up all day, myself.
29:22I got off lightly.
29:24The good thing was that that pike actually came off.
29:27It wasn't attached to my arm and flapping around.
29:31Well, if that had been a muskie, and if that had stayed attached rather than unhooking itself,
29:35I could be in a lot more trouble.
29:36Once again, and still empty-handed, my fishing is brought to an abrupt end by bad weather.
29:49I think we saw a bit of lightning just then, so...
29:54Not good to be out on a big expanse of water, waving a carbon fibre pole.
30:01With this new setback, I can't help feeling that the gods are against me.
30:07Next morning, though, my guide, Don Persch, tells me a first-hand fisherman's tale
30:15that could be highly significant.
30:17It was a bright, sunny day.
30:19And here was this big brown line coming in.
30:23I thought I was looking at ten foot of muskie coming after my bait.
30:27And it was two fifty-inchers, nose to tail, coming at the same time.
30:31They were in a straight line, coming like a train.
30:34So what it was, was two muskies following each other, one behind the other, sort of total length, something like ten foot?
30:43Yes, sir.
30:45Could this be the missing piece of the puzzle?
30:48It's very interesting what Don said about the behaviour of these fish.
30:54And I'm particularly intrigued by that story of one muskie following close behind another.
31:00Because, although one muskie is not really big enough to be the lake monster,
31:05perhaps what people are seeing is more than one individual swimming in formation, creating the illusion of a much bigger creature.
31:17During spawning, muskies are known to swim very close to one another, sometimes with their backs and tails breaking the surface.
31:25What if the twenty foot Canadian lake monster was not one muskie, but a small group of them, swimming in loose formation?
31:38The muskie is the best candidate I can find for the sightings of a giant serpent in these waters.
31:43It has the attitude, the shape, the hardware, and the unusual head lifting behaviour to match.
31:53And this new information ticks the final box.
31:57The signs.
31:58My investigation might be complete, but my mission is far from over.
32:08I can't feel entirely satisfied until I've actually seen a muskie in the flesh.
32:14And this is now becoming an obsession.
32:23For five more days, I fish around the clock.
32:28But now, not even the pike are biting.
32:34No response here, time to move on again.
32:37My muskie hunt is now really taking its toll.
32:42My hands and arms are sore, my eyes are aching.
32:46And most disturbing of all, I can feel my confidence ebbing away.
32:50I knew that it was going to be hard, so I was prepared for lots of effort, for no reward or even sort of glimpse of a fish.
33:02But apparently this is, even for muskie fishing, this is slow, this is difficult.
33:07By now, I must be close to 10,000 casts.
33:20What I really need now, besides catching a fish, is a good night's sleep, but I find that I close my eyes and I'm expecting the shape of a fish to slide into view at any moment.
33:40I'm just sitting here, all twitchy, tired, but at the same time strangely awake.
33:49If I'm going to win this battle, I've got no choice but to get back out there and keep working the water.
34:01Do good things come to those who wait?
34:17Or am I fated to fail?
34:22Finally, after a week with little sleep...
34:27Follow, follow, follow, follow.
34:29There's something big stalking my lure.
34:32Muskie!
34:33There we go.
34:34It's the object of my obsession, and I can almost touch it.
34:38Oh, it's still there, it's still there.
34:39But will it strike?
34:50In the Canadian wilderness, I'm going all out for a muskie.
34:54Follow, follow, follow, follow, follow, follow, follow.
34:57And I finally got one in my sights.
35:00Muskie!
35:01Woo, there we go.
35:03Big fish, Jeremy.
35:06It's tantalizingly close.
35:09Oh, it's still there, it's still there.
35:10Then it simply vanishes.
35:12For **** sake.
35:13I've never experienced anything like this before.
35:25I feel I'm being taunted.
35:27The frustration level is getting pretty well off the scale.
35:32To see a fish that far behind your lure, and then it doesn't take it.
35:37It's just...
35:38And you can't do anything about it.
35:40All you can do is try again and again.
35:43How many times?
35:47The days are running together.
35:49More muskies follow my lures.
35:52But the strike I'm so desperate for never comes.
35:57In just a few more weeks, this lake will freeze, and it'll be game over.
36:02I'm at my wit's end.
36:06Perhaps it's time to invoke the spirits.
36:13You know, sometimes when anglers are struggling to find any kind of logical reason why things might improve,
36:19we fall back on superstition.
36:21In which case, this here is absolutely right on cue.
36:26I take this as a sign.
36:29But of what?
36:33Something tells me I should go back to Spirit Rock.
36:38It's not a known musky spot.
36:41But I've got something else on my mind.
36:44I feel I've lost belief in myself as an angler, and I need to get it back.
36:49Because it is such a sacred place, I've brought tobacco with me to make an offering to the spirit.
37:05I need to clear my head and regain my confidence.
37:09I just need to catch a fish.
37:12Anything will do.
37:13So I'm going right back to basics.
37:17A thin line, a lightweight rod, and a small hook.
37:22The thing about musky fishing is that it utterly consumes you,
37:26and at the same time you just get these intense levels of frustration.
37:30And I've got to the point where I'm actually fishing somewhat mechanically.
37:34I'm casting, I'm casting, and I've lost that expectation.
37:36I've lost that belief that I'm going to get something.
37:38I just want to feel anything.
37:39I don't care what it is, something alive on the end of my line to get that belief back.
37:48Even a small lake trout would do the trick.
37:53I'm keeping the bait within a couple of feet of the bottom.
37:56So I'm just giving it a little bit of life by just raising it a couple of foot or so off the bottom
38:00and letting it sink down again.
38:09Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yes, yes, yes, that's a fish.
38:18At last, I'm back in the game.
38:21I think it's coming up.
38:22I think it is coming up.
38:23Yeah, I can feel it.
38:24I can feel it. It's coming.
38:25But my rod is buckling under the strain.
38:28This is no lake trout.
38:30I've hooked a huge muskie with totally the wrong gear.
38:47Frustrated by my failure to catch a giant muskie, I've called on the spirit of Eagle Lake.
38:53Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yes, yes, yes, that's a fish.
38:56And just when I was least expecting it, my prayers have been answered.
39:01But I've got a problem.
39:04After endless days of failure, I've switched to lightweight gear just to catch something small and get back my confidence.
39:12I'm worried about the line. This is an incredibly weak line.
39:15The beast that's grabbed my bait, however, is no minnow.
39:18Ah!
39:20It's a massive muskie on six-pound line.
39:24We're never going to get this in.
39:26I'm just going to let that drag go very loose.
39:28My line just has to touch a rock, a tooth, or even the gill plate, and it'll snap.
39:34We're going to try and get it near the boat.
39:36No, it's going down again.
39:39Nice little fish.
39:40Oh, she's huge. Keep her head down. That's a huge fish.
39:43All my hopes are hanging on the slenderest of threads.
39:48Let's go.
39:50Let's go.
39:52Let's go.
39:54This is the monster from Spirit Rock.
39:59It's a big muskie.
40:03Six-pound line, tiny bait, sacred site, made the tobacco offering.
40:10That has to rank as one of the most extraordinary catches of my life.
40:15We've got a muskie.
40:17I must have made over 13,000 casts, and it's only when I stop trying to catch one that a muskie finally bites.
40:30That's the hook. That's the line. Look at that line. It's like cotton.
40:34And that was just in the corner of the mouth.
40:38That line, well, that's what happened to that line and teeth. That was me, my teeth.
40:44It's four feet long and then some, by any standards, a very big muskie.
40:49Here we go, fish of 10,000 casts, big old muskie.
40:54Just looking at it, you can tell it's the supreme predator.
40:58It just has this attitude problem. It's the absolute top predator of these waters and it knows it.
41:05This fish is a very impressive beast.
41:09Back in the water.
41:11But just imagine three or four of them at the surface, swimming in a tight-knit group.
41:16You could be forgiven for thinking you'd seen the lake serpent.
41:21I'm actually still trying to take that in.
41:23I mean, who would have thought that things would have turned out this way to catch a fish like that in circumstances like this?
41:31They did say that this rock is the home of a monster.
41:36Turns out they were absolutely right.
41:38Well, let's get right to it. I'm not sure I've ever seen Jeremy give up, but it sure looked like he was ready to throw in the towel before he caught that muskie.
41:56Jeremy, what was going through your mind?
41:58I had actually given up. I wasn't fishing for muskie there at all.
42:01Fishing, there always is this element of luck, this random element, and sometimes nothing is going your way.
42:07That's what happened there. I've just been fishing, fishing, fishing, nothing at all.
42:10And then sometimes things can just turn around so outrageously that you just don't believe it was possible.
42:17And I still have trouble actually registering that I caught that fish.
42:22Such a tiny line, tiny hook, shouldn't have happened. Amazing.
42:26A fishing miracle, wasn't it?
42:27It was.
42:28Well, right now, Jeremy Wade is taking a tiny break from his worldwide fishing adventures to join us for a lightning round after show.
42:34I'm executive producer Lisa Lucas.
42:36And tonight, Jeremy is answering questions from you about river monsters and about his life on and off camera.
42:43Plus, we're showcasing photos of your monster catches at the bottom of the screen.
42:47So send us your best fishing shot using the hashtag real monster, that's R-E-E-L monster, on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram right now.
42:55Okay, Jeremy, let's take a look at your first viewer question.
42:58Ooh, and I hope I don't mess this up.
43:00Strahina G asks, you've been fishing all around the world, but which place that you've never been to before would you most like to go fishing?
43:10Where would you like to be fishing?
43:12At this point, going into season seven, we have this incredible geographical spread.
43:17One place we've never been to is China. I would love to go to China.
43:21There is an amazing fish that lives there. It's called, I believe it's a Chinese seer fish.
43:26Now, the trouble is, we have to go somewhere where there is a realistic chance of getting something in a two and a half week period.
43:33Now, these river monsters, they're getting harder and harder to find everywhere in the world.
43:37And in China, unfortunately, I do not think there's a realistic chance of catching anything in the time that we have available.
43:44So, for the time being, China is off the map.
43:47Not even Jeremy Wade can catch it. Hard to believe.
43:50Let's get a question. Joshua Kay asks, if you discovered a new species, what would you name it?
43:55I think what he's thinking about there is a Latin name, a scientific name.
43:59It would depend on what the fish was, what it looked like.
44:01But what I would really like to do, there is, I'd try to get a scientific name that is longer than the current longest scientific name,
44:08which I believe is diphylo bothrium latum. It's a type of parasitic worm.
44:13I would like to name something.
44:15A little worm with a big name.
44:17Exactly. Yeah, exactly. I'd go away and I'd think about it for a few weeks and come out with something even longer than that.
44:22Even longer? Okay. Well, right now, you're probably curious about the number in the corner of the screen.
44:26We're counting down to the premiere of 100 Miles From Nowhere,
44:30about three guys who, much like Jeremy, are extraordinary adventurers.
44:34In fact, since no cameraman dares to follow them, they shoot everything themselves.
44:38But that's coming up in a few minutes.
44:40And right now, we've got Jeremy in the hot seat.
44:42So let's get to another question.
44:44Ryan M asks, dear Jeremy, any chance you need a personal assistant?
44:49I would totally take a fish to the chest for you and I make good tea. Cheers.
44:53Well, there's an offer. And I think fish to the chest is the arapaima.
44:56So do you need a personal assistant?
44:59Making good tea is a good start. As a rule, I don't need an assistant.
45:02But in that one instance of flying arapaima being around, I would definitely someone to get in the way at that point.
45:08Yeah.
45:09Take a flying fish for you. Here's one from Gabriella.
45:11She's asking, what was the strangest meal or concoction you have ever had with a native?
45:17I think she wants to know, what's the weirdest food you've eaten?
45:20I've eaten bugs, insects on a few occasions, fried locusts, fried in their own fat, palm grubs in the Amazon.
45:27They're little sort of maggoty things.
45:29Do they taste like chicken?
45:30No, they don't. They taste of coconut oil because they live in a sort of, you know, like a small coconut thing.
45:36They're actually very tasty. And I've eaten a larger version of those, which are about the size of your thumb, in Guyana.
45:44And that was fairly horrible. It's a sort of maggoty texture.
45:49I mean, very protein-aceous, but a slight sort of smell of excrement about it, which I didn't like.
45:55Oh, God. So you like protein, but not when it tastes like maggot?
45:58Yeah, just hold your nose for that one.
46:00Okay, okay.
46:01Well, most people don't realize that the vast majority of what's filmed for River Monsters,
46:05never gets seen. Check out an epic struggle that didn't make it into tonight's episode.
46:10This is Sophie the dog. She lives on a lake in Ontario.
46:15Looks like you can catch fish, Jeremy, but you can't catch a dog.
46:18I think she's got my shoe, I think, and we can't go out on the lake until I get my shoe back.
46:22Ah, Sophie. Okay, we've got another question.
46:26A Carrie 99 is asking, do you give yourself a time limit for filming, or do you always just stay until mission accomplished?
46:35Interesting. People are thinking, you know, the program is an hour long.
46:37That normally takes us about two and a half, three weeks to film.
46:41Of that, generally just four or five days of fishing. It might be nine or ten sometimes.
46:47And we have to get the fish. If we don't get the fish, we haven't got the program.
46:51The great thing about having limited time is it concentrates your mind.
46:55And so I am really focused. I am fishing effectively.
46:58I'm not just throwing a line out at random and sitting back.
47:01There is pressure, and that is a good thing.
47:03Sometimes we run over. Occasionally we have to go back.
47:06Normally we do it in the time.
47:08Keely F is asking, do you ever get frustrated by your fame or become annoyed with fans?
47:15Why would I get frustrated? No, if you're making television, you want people to watch what you're making.
47:20If they don't watch it, I've got to go and find another job, which is probably going to be less interesting.
47:24I'm sure it will be.
47:26I'm delighted that people watch. Why would I be otherwise?
47:28Well, speaking of fans, I think we have a picture of you preparing to go shopping.
47:33There you are. There you are. That's you under there, isn't it?
47:36That is actually me.
47:38So you wear that to go shopping?
47:40I did on that occasion. This was filming last year in the U.S.,
47:43and we actually went into a supermarket to buy batteries, and somebody spotted me,
47:49and I ended up, I couldn't get away for about 20 minutes or half an hour taking pictures,
47:53which was great, but we're in the middle of a busy day, so they bought that wig and that fake beard
47:59and said, next time you go shopping, you're wearing that.
48:01Right, so batteries take five minutes instead of 20. I get it.
48:04Jeremy does get recognized, especially in the U.S., but I know in some places people have no idea who Jeremy is
48:10or that a film production is even going on, and here's evidence of that.
48:14Tell me, Jeremy, what is the story behind this horrible-looking thing?
48:19This is not the real thing, I have to say. This is a prop. This is from this reconstruction here.
48:23There was a story of somebody getting swallowed by a giant catfish, and we filmed this in a fish market in Guyana,
48:30and we told the people, obviously, who are our actors and the people in the immediate surroundings,
48:35but some people who were slightly further away, there was a woman who understandably freaked out,
48:40she thought that was real, got on the phone, the next thing we knew we had a local news crew,
48:44they got there before the police, and we had to explain to everybody this is not a real event,
48:49and they went away slightly disappointed. There is a PS to this story, we were leaving the country,
48:54we were going out through the airport, and having checked in our bags,
48:58we have like 30, 40 bags, instead of them going onto the conveyor,
49:01we then had to take them and get them x-rayed before they went out,
49:04and the guy on the x-ray machine suddenly throws his arms in the air,
49:09calls our cameraman and says, have you got a body in this bag?
49:12And we had to explain, it's a plastic one, don't worry about it.
49:15They didn't check it out, it could have been a real one. Anyway, it went through and...
49:18Bodies in luggage? Yeah.
49:20Well, we're getting lots of great questions in real monster photos.
49:23Thank you to everyone who's posting. Next, Nancy M is asking,
49:28when did you become so hot? With a little wink, when did you become so hot?
49:34On the programs, my co-stars are fish, which are pretty hideous on the whole.
49:40So by default, you're the hottest one on the screen.
49:42And anybody's going to look good next to, say, a goonch catfish.
49:45Oh, you're so honest.
49:46So if you're a man and you want to look good, an inflatable goonch catfish...
49:49Something ugly next to you. Exactly.
49:50I get it, I get it.
49:52I believe we did some sort of, a bit of a promo shoot a while ago.
49:56And the thing is, if you're doing this kind of thing here...
49:59Oh, that's pretty, yeah, that's kind of GQ Jeremy.
50:02Yeah, that's not a snap. Somebody's taken all day to shoot that.
50:05Somebody sits down on a Photoshop machine, whatever they call them, for a whole day.
50:09Well, Stuart H has a question. If you could expand your hunt for river monsters to species now extinct, what would be your great white whale?
50:19Wow. I promise we don't know Stuart, and I was going to bring this up because I have something cool to show you, but Stuart obviously beat me to it.
50:26Jeremy is definitely going after some prehistoric beasts in Monster Week at the end of May.
50:30And here we go. Yeah, these are some of the highlights from that. You'll have to watch that show to see the beasts that we featured.
50:38Impressive beasts.
50:39Some horrendous stuff.
50:41Look at the size of that one.
50:42That is amazing.
50:43We've actually got one of those beasts right here, don't we?
50:47Yeah, this is, I got into some fossil hunting, and this is a 3D print of the skull of a mega piranha, and the whole creature would have come out about here.
50:58Careful, don't get your hands anywhere near the mouth.
51:00Oh, yes, it's dangerous.
51:01Believe it or not, this is one of the less terrifying creatures that we feature.
51:07This is the goldfish of the collection.
51:08Exactly.
51:09So, to see the other ones, a bit of a spoiler, this program is coming out, but you're going to have to wait to see what this one is swimming with.
51:17See what the rest of it is. I can't wait.
51:18Well, it's hard to top every season of River Monsters, but I can tell you, this season, Jeremy does some things he's never dared to do before, and you're not going to want to miss it.
51:27Jeremy, thanks so much for joining us.
51:28It's been a lot of fun, thanks.