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River.Monsters.S09E04
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00:01I'm Jeremy Wade, explorer, biologist and aquatic detective.
00:07I've fought battles with river and marine monsters all over the world,
00:11and I've been pushed to the limit time and again.
00:15But one extraordinary encounter stands out.
00:19It's in the fast water.
00:21Try and relax and keep a bit of calm.
00:23On my first ever river monsters shoot, I landed a rare gunch catfish as big as me.
00:30That is a big fish.
00:33Since then, I've heard little about the gunch.
00:36I feared that they were gone for good.
00:39But now, from India's neighbour, Nepal, intriguing stories are surfacing
00:45of fishermen dragged into mountain rivers never to be seen again.
00:49But after that, he's just so terrified of what's in the water.
00:53He's now a farmer.
00:54I need the boat.
00:55Is my old adversary, the deadly gunch catfish, back from the brink and back in business?
01:19A decade ago, in my first ever river monsters investigation,
01:26I spent six gruelling weeks on India's Kali River,
01:30trying to unmask the elusive monster behind a series of deadly attacks.
01:38I was exhausted and close to giving up when I was propelled into a raging river by an underwater beast.
01:45After an epic struggle, I finally caught the culprit.
01:50A 161 pound underwater ogre with a taste for human flesh.
01:58The giant devil catfish, known as the gunch.
02:04Catching this ferocious fish made my reputation and launched river monsters.
02:10Since then, the Kali River has experienced rapid development and population growth.
02:18Parts have become so polluted, they've been declared a health hazard.
02:23I feared that Big Gunch had disappeared from the region's rivers.
02:27But now, an unexpected report from the Himalayan country of Nepal.
02:35A mysterious incident that feels strangely familiar.
02:41A lone fisherman on a mountain river, dragged off his feet and into the water by an unseen creature.
02:48His body never recovered.
02:53Could this be the work of the gunch?
02:56I have to find out.
03:01I'm heading four and a half thousand miles to Asia and the mighty Himalayan mountains.
03:07The top of the world is new territory for me.
03:14My destination, Nepal, is home to eight of the world's ten highest peaks.
03:20Including the highest of them all, Mount Everest.
03:24These mountains are the source of many great rivers.
03:27I'm curious to find out what lives in these remote waters.
03:48Kathmandu is the spiritual and cultural heart of Nepal.
03:51A place of gods, ghosts and demons.
04:00Looking at all these amazing carvings, it's not hard to imagine that this could be a place where you might find some strange monsters.
04:06The first step of my investigation is to meet my source for the recent story.
04:23Colonel Mike Allen.
04:25Mike spent 40 years as a soldier with the elite Gurkha regiment.
04:32And many decades fishing the country's rivers.
04:35Like me, he has a fascination for the beasts that lurk in them.
04:40One hears reports of huge fish tucked away in some very deep pools.
04:46Mike still keeps his ear to the ground for interesting stories.
04:49And he's able to tell me where the mysterious case of the disappearing fishermen took place.
04:55On Nepal's longest and wildest river, the Karnali.
05:02Getting there won't be easy, so I've enlisted an experienced driver, Mahesh.
05:07The journey takes me through the foothills of the Himalayas, where rockfalls and landslides are common.
05:20This road, if you can call it that, is literally scratched into the side of a very unstable mountain.
05:27And every monsoon, huge bits of that mountainside slide down and end up in the river.
05:32Mahesh warns me that the devastating earthquake of 2015 made many roads here impassable.
05:43Look at this, boulders the size of a house.
05:46So, at this stage, I'm not actually sure if I'm going to make it through.
05:49We finally make it to the village of Kino, where the fishermen who disappeared lived.
06:10The villagers are aware of the case.
06:14Anybody else here who might know more about it?
06:18I'm directed to the owner of the local tea house.
06:29Nawal was once a fisherman here on the Karnali River.
06:32He was friends with the man who disappeared and has agreed to talk about the incident.
06:38Can you tell me exactly what happened to this man just recently?
06:40What happened to him?
06:41As I question him about the mysterious case, I can start to see what happened.
06:51The incident took place just downstream from the village, at a popular fishing spot.
06:57Ali, an experienced fisherman, was throwing a cast net from the shallows.
07:02His morning had been slow, so he stayed on after the other men had headed home.
07:14He was never seen again.
07:16According to Nawal, Ali was a strong swimmer and unlikely to have drowned.
07:27And if he had, a body would have turned up somewhere downriver.
07:30But despite a search that went on for 20 days, no corpse was ever found.
07:42The consensus among the villagers is that Ali was dragged in to his death.
07:46What creature could have been powerful enough to drag a man into the water and devour his body?
08:00A big gunch catfish would have the power, and I know it has a reputation for disposing of the dead.
08:06But would it attack a man who's fighting back?
08:10I can't just assume a gunch is guilty.
08:14I need to consider other big predators that haunt Nepal's rivers.
08:19There's one I have in mind.
08:22But when I ask around, I don't get the answers I'm expecting.
08:28When you hear about people disappearing in the river, in this part of the world,
08:32where possibly some large underwater creature is involved,
08:35top of the list of suspects is normally crocodiles.
08:38The thing is, if you've got crocodiles in the water, you're going to see them from time to time out of the water as well,
08:43because they have to come out into the heat to warm themselves up.
08:46And the people here just don't see them.
08:49I have a hunch why the locals don't come across crocodiles on this part of the Carnali.
08:55Rivers here are either rain or glacier-fed.
08:59And this affects the water's year-round temperature, and ultimately, what lives in it.
09:04The cloudy grey colour of the water, the result of sediment known as rock flower,
09:11tells me that this is meltwater from the mountains, and will remain cold all year.
09:16Crocodiles dislike cold water, and since they've not been seen by the locals, who've fished this river for centuries,
09:26I've scratched crocs from my suspect list.
09:28There must be something else, large enough to drag a man into this river.
09:37But what is it?
09:39I've got more questions for Nawal.
09:42And this time, he reveals more.
09:46There was another incident on the same stretch of river, and Nawal himself was the victim.
09:57I'm in remote western Nepal, on the trail of a river monster reported to have dragged a fisherman to a watery grave.
10:04Fairly close to the side of the river, and how deep was the water?
10:22I've just uncovered a second story with intriguing parallels to the first.
10:30A few years ago, Nawal was out fishing with a group of friends.
10:35They had fished this spot before, and knew the waters well.
10:40Suddenly, something very large became entangled in Nawal's net.
10:44He tried to hang on, but was being dragged away downstream.
10:54Even with the help of his friends, Nawal was unable to control whatever was in his net.
11:04He was pulled, he told me, about a hundred yards downstream.
11:07And it was only because these other guys stopped what they were doing, and came to assist him, that he survived.
11:14The original victim, Ali, didn't have people around to help him.
11:19But why didn't he simply let go of the net?
11:27Nawal tells me that fishermen loop the cord to the net around their wrist, so they don't lose it.
11:33This isn't normally dangerous.
11:40But if something really big gets in the net, the cord becomes a deadly noose.
11:52Nawal believes that this is what happened to Ali.
11:56And, one extra little detail, Nawal himself, he doesn't fish anymore.
12:00He said, after that, he's just so terrified of what is in the water.
12:03He's now a farmer, doesn't go near the water.
12:09Both these stories remind me of my own experience ten years ago in India.
12:14I, too, was overpowered, forced into a river, and could have drowned.
12:19But I can't blame a gunch without proof.
12:28There could be other suspects here on the Karnali.
12:32It's a major river, and flows all the way from the high Himalayas to the mighty Ganges.
12:37It contains many species, and no doubt some surprises under the surface.
12:46No, that's not working.
12:49But things are bumpy from the start.
12:51Um, this is the second cast.
12:55Two casts, one snag.
12:57It's just the nature of this kind of fishing.
12:59You've got to be philosophical about it.
13:00You've got to have plenty of spare gear as well.
13:08After hours of trying, my frustrations begin to mount.
13:12Slightly revising my opinion of this place.
13:18I haven't got that gut feeling.
13:21I haven't got that sense of anticipation of something could happen at any moment.
13:31I switch up my gear just to try and get something on the line.
13:38Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
13:39Yes!
13:46Stuck on something.
13:50That snag, that's not moving.
13:52It's a line or a net.
13:55Damn.
13:58I've lost my lure on something in the river.
14:05Yeah, that's the line gone.
14:06That would have been, that would have been at the knot to my swivel.
14:14This is a bad sign.
14:16I'm hoping the fisherman can tell me what's preventing me from getting to the fish.
14:20Here, big fish now?
14:22Big fish.
14:2415 kg.
14:2515 kg.
14:27It quickly becomes clear that there are two problems here.
14:31So now a lot of people are fishing this river.
14:34Yeah.
14:35The river is overfished and the equipment being used is left hidden in the water for days and sometimes even discarded there.
14:44So it's probably something like that that I got caught up on.
14:47Mostly this is going to be under the surface.
14:50I'm going to discover one of these when I hook up on it.
14:53A single rod and line in this place.
14:56I'm just not going to get anything of note at all.
14:59I need to find a stretch of river that's not riddled with nets and lines waiting to snag my gear.
15:09A place where fewer people are fishing.
15:14When briefing me on the region, Colonel Mike told me about an area he's fished before.
15:19In the lower part, which is the Babai River.
15:22He said the Babai River is isolated and difficult to access.
15:26So this should mean less fishing activity.
15:32From a nearby high point, things look promising.
15:37Little evidence of habitation.
15:43On the river's edge, there are other encouraging signs.
15:46These marks were made by sucker-mouthed fish swimming over the rock and feeding on algae.
15:55Here we go. Here's the head of the fish.
15:57The sucker is here and it's just moving along slowly sucking up algae.
16:01And what these marks tell me is three things.
16:04First thing is that a couple of months ago the water level was somewhere up here.
16:09Two, there are small fish in this river and we're talking about something this size that would have made these marks here.
16:14And three, normally when you've got small fish, you're going to find something bigger that wants to feed on them.
16:23After my frustrations on the Carnali, I'm eager to get a line in these pristine waters.
16:28Now I have a real chance of tracking down the monster that's stalking this region's rivers.
16:37Yeah, there's something pulling there. There we go.
16:38Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Got a fish.
16:39Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Got a fish.
16:40Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Got a fish.
16:44I am in western Nepal investigating mysterious incidents where fishermen were dragged into rivers one time ago.
16:48Yeah, there's something pulling there. There we go.
16:54Yeah, yeah, yeah, got a fish!
17:06I'm in western Nepal, investigating mysterious incidents
17:10where fishermen were dragged into rivers, one to his death.
17:14And I've finally got a fish on my line.
17:19Look at that. Look at that.
17:30This is a Marcia.
17:32I think the first thing to be said about this is that it's a very pretty fish.
17:36These large golden scales, very streamlined body.
17:40This is what, back in the days of the British Empire,
17:43the colonial gents in their time off used to come and fish for.
17:46These potentially grow to over 100 pounds,
17:50some stories even maybe 200 pounds.
17:52I've caught a large Marcia myself.
17:55I caught one over 90 pounds.
17:57So this is certainly a fish that if somebody got it in their throw net,
18:00this is absolutely capable of pulling you in the water.
18:06Although it doesn't look like it, this is actually a predator.
18:08It has a very muscular mouth, which is sort of telescopic.
18:11It's quite capacious there.
18:13It feeds on the bottom, going over rocks, feeling with these.
18:18But that's capable of taking quite large prey.
18:21And it does have teeth, but the teeth are not in the normal place.
18:24They are throat teeth.
18:25They're in the back of the throat.
18:27A large Marcia can be a formidable fish,
18:32but I'd need to see how big they grow here
18:35to be convinced it's a serious suspect.
18:39The Babai River is clearly worth investigating.
18:44I'll need a boat to travel downstream.
18:47When I explain what I'm looking for and why,
18:52I'm directed to a man named Firalal.
19:00He has a remarkable story.
19:07A couple of years ago, Firalal was walking by the river.
19:12It was late in the day and getting dark.
19:17He noticed something at the water's edge and went to investigate.
19:27He couldn't see what the creature was.
19:33But it was large and semi-submerged.
19:39Firalal thought it was dead.
19:45It wasn't.
19:47He had to tear himself free.
19:49So it's here.
19:51Do you have any scar?
19:52Any mark?
19:56The scars extend from his shoulder to his wrist.
20:00This animal was big.
20:02When I ask him what he thought it was,
20:04he uses a word in his local dialect that I'm guessing means crocodile.
20:09But this doesn't add up.
20:14If that had been a crocodile, either you don't get your arm back or you're not around to tell the story.
20:19Or you've got great big holes in your arm.
20:22And I've seen crocodile bites.
20:23That's not a crocodile bite.
20:24That's something else.
20:25I really need to find out what exactly that was.
20:28Could this same monster be responsible for the incidents on the Karnali River?
20:33Firalal's terrifying encounter happened downstream inside a national park where no one is allowed to live.
20:44I need permission to go there.
20:47At the park office, the ranger warns me about potential dangers on the Babai River.
20:52So the water was all the way up to the bridge, to the road?
20:57Yes, yes.
20:59Just two years ago, there was a massive flood.
21:05Few people have ventured here since.
21:09To help me navigate safely downstream, I'm assigned two guides.
21:14Gandhi and Kathak.
21:16They explain that the river has narrow sections of fast water, punctuated by wider, slow-flowing pools, which will be best for fishing.
21:35I think this could be a good position to fish from.
21:38Yeah, I think I'll try here.
21:40The river takes us through alluvial grasslands and thick sub-tropical forest.
21:50My guides warn me there are rhinos and tigers here, so I'll have to watch my back as we continue down river.
22:02Push, push, push, push.
22:11For Gandhi and Kathak, every trip down the Babai is a new challenge, because the river's course is constantly changing.
22:31This is just the fact that the river floods every year, and every year it will subtly rearrange the river.
22:36But sometimes it will rearrange it in a rather dramatic way.
22:43The recent massive flood may also have changed the underwater geography of the river, and displaced some of the fish,
22:51which could make tracking down suspects a tougher task.
22:55Right here.
22:56Oh yeah, alright.
22:57Throw it, and then we'll tie it under.
22:59Very.
23:00I'm eager to get down to the scene of Firralal's attack, but my guides advise that we stop and make camp.
23:15It's a good thing we did.
23:17That's pretty definitely an elephant crossing place there, just at the bottom of this pool.
23:25And they come out 75 yards away from our camp, so good job we didn't put the camp a little bit further down.
23:35They might have got a bit upset, and you don't want to upset these guys.
23:39Wild elephants could tear apart our camp if they stumbled on it in the dark.
23:45My guides tell me that every year in lowland Nepal, people are killed by elephant herds.
23:51The next morning, I'm itching to get on, and get fishing.
24:07What about this though?
24:09Crocodile tracks.
24:11They indicate the water must be warmer here on the Babai than on the Karnali.
24:15So crocs have to be on the suspect list for any attack here.
24:19But Firralal's scars were like no crocodile bites I've ever seen.
24:26They were made by a narrower jawed monster.
24:31More like an alligator gar, maybe.
24:34A fish I know well.
24:36Actually laying hands on this prehistoric beast.
24:39But gar are not native to these waters.
24:42There's got to be something else out here.
24:50We continue downstream to the area where Firralal was attacked.
24:55Yeah, let's try one from just here.
24:57With tigers and crocs on the banks, I'm staying in the boat.
25:03I'm not sure what attacked Firralal, but it's in here somewhere.
25:10Oh.
25:11There we go.
25:12Yep.
25:13Whoa.
25:14I'm in remote Western Nepal, investigating three mysterious cases.
25:19And I've got a fish on.
25:20There it is.
25:21I have no landing net or anything, so that might impede me just a little bit.
25:22There it is.
25:23There it is.
25:24I have no landing net or anything, so that might impede me just a little bit.
25:29There.
25:30There.
25:31There.
25:32That is a snake head.
25:33I've seen snake head in the ocean.
25:34I've seen snake head in the ocean.
25:35There it is.
25:36There it is.
25:37There it is.
25:38There it is.
25:39I have no landing net or anything, so that might impede me just a little bit.
25:44There.
25:45There.
25:46That is a snake head.
25:47I've seen snake head in the Indian subcontinent.
25:48Normally just a few inches long.
25:49I've used them for bait.
25:50But this thing?
25:51This has got to be, I don't know, around about the ten pound mark, something like that.
25:55But I have it on good authority that these grow considerably bigger.
26:00Um.
26:01A reliable estimate of 90 pounds.
26:02And if you've got one of those in a throw net, particularly when one of these is fresh,
26:07full of energy, that could well pull you in.
26:10I wouldn't want to be in that position myself.
26:12A big snake head could have been responsible for the dragging incidents on the Carnali.
26:17But it could well pull you in.
26:20I wouldn't want to be in that position myself.
26:22A big snake head could have been responsible for the dragging incidents on the Carnali.
26:27But what about the attack on Firalau, here on the Babai?
26:33It's one of the very few fish that will actually go for a person, knowing that it's a person.
26:40You know, it's not poor visibility, mistaken identity, reflex grab, anything like that.
26:45This is one fish that really does punch above its weight.
26:50I'm putting on a bite-proof glove here.
26:53I'm going to try and have a look at the teeth.
26:55A lot of predatory fish swallow their prey whole.
26:59Some predatory fish, such as piranhas, bite lumps out.
27:04And you can look at their teeth and you can tell that that's what they do.
27:06This is a bit misleading.
27:09They don't look like cutting teeth. They look like gripping teeth.
27:12They're like needles.
27:14But in fact, what they do is when they grip their prey, if they shake the head, those teeth act rather like the teeth on the saw blade and they can actually cut a small fish in half in a fraction of a second.
27:32It looks like this has been injured by something.
27:35On the other side as well, it looks like something's had a go at it.
27:41Anything that attacks a three-foot snakehead is going to be a serious predator.
27:48And the tooth marks again suggest a narrow-jawed assailant.
27:53Whatever bit into this snakehead may be what attacked Firalal.
27:57Half an hour downstream, I spot something way up ahead at the water's edge and decide to investigate.
28:17It's a long dark shape. It's hard to make out of this distance though.
28:42The creature emerges.
28:51But it's not a crock.
28:54The knob on its long thin jaw is unmistakable.
28:58I can hardly believe what I'm seeing.
29:02This is a gharial, possibly the rarest river monster of them all.
29:09This is one of the scarcest predators in the world.
29:13There's barely more than 200 of them left.
29:15I am now close enough to get a real appreciation of the size of the animal.
29:19It's at least 15 feet.
29:20But also I can start to see those jaws, the jaws and the teeth.
29:23And I'll tell you, although scientists say these are specifically designed for catching and eating fish,
29:29when you're this close to one, the adrenaline is definitely pumping.
29:35For me, it's the encounter of a lifetime.
29:38Because of hunting and habitat loss, the gharial is critically endangered in the wild and is now protected.
29:45I have no doubt that this was the narrow-jawed animal that scarred the snake head.
29:57But is the gharial responsible for the attacks I'm investigating?
30:01It's time to take stock.
30:06Well, the suspect list I've managed to assemble so far contains some pretty impressive beasts,
30:11but somehow I don't think there's a particularly compelling case for any one of them.
30:18The marcia can grow big, but I've not seen large enough ones here.
30:24The snake head can do some real damage, but I don't think it's aggressive enough to actually kill someone.
30:33And the gharial.
30:34It's certainly big enough and has the power and weaponry to be seriously dangerous.
30:40And with a jaw much narrower than a crox, I'm pretty certain this is the creature that scarred Firilal.
30:48But what about the incidents on the Carnali River?
30:54In this case, water temperature is key.
30:58Since it's too cold for crocodiles on the Carnali, I don't think gharial would be there either.
31:07I've been trying to keep an open mind.
31:10But every sign points to the beast that drew me here in the first place.
31:14Possibly, of all the monsters I've tangled with in my career, the most memorable, the gunch catfish.
31:24The gunch ripped me from a riverbank in just the same way that narwhal was overpowered.
31:32And its taste for human flesh could account for Ali's body never being recovered.
31:37The gunch has the means and the motive, and I know this fish is capable of the crime.
31:46It's now my prime suspect.
31:49Might need the boat.
31:50It's time for a showdown with the original river monster.
32:03I'm in western Nepal investigating three mysterious cases.
32:07I believe I've solved one, but two incidents in which the victims were dragged into rivers, one to his death, remain open.
32:18After fishing two rivers extensively, I've narrowed my focus to the gunch catfish.
32:24A decade ago, it took me six tortuous weeks to track down a big gunch, and such beasts are now even rarer.
32:36I think I need to give this a closer look.
32:38My journal from the original expedition details the depths, water flow and river conditions that led to a successful catch.
32:48I'm hoping this hard-won knowledge will help fast-track me to the fish.
32:59Going after gunch requires patience, persistence and preparation.
33:04It's not exactly fresh, but the good thing about catfish such as gunch is going to help them locate it,
33:10and they're not fussy really in terms of the freshness of the stuff that they eat.
33:16With any luck, the pungent bait will prove irresistible to the sometimes fickle gunch.
33:24A lot of people think you've got to hide the hook.
33:27You hide the hook, you're not going to get that hook to penetrate in the mouth of the predator.
33:30So the hook points have to be visible.
33:34And what I've done to hold it all, particularly holding the mouth shut,
33:39if that mouth is open, the current is going to pull the whole thing apart.
33:43So I've used bits of luggage tag, and that's holding everything nicely together.
33:48Now to scope out this pool.
33:55What I'm going to do before starting fishing, I just want to get an idea of depths.
34:00So just a bit of lead on a bit of light line.
34:04I'm just going to drop it off the side of the boat.
34:05What I'm looking for is deep water.
34:09I mean, what the gunch like is when the current pushes into a rock and then excavates a bit of a hole.
34:15But sometimes what looks deep isn't.
34:18You cast out and you're just in a few feet of water.
34:21I'll even do it here.
34:23It's three foot, six, nine.
34:32It's twelve foot.
34:36This is twelve foot of water.
34:38This could be a good spot here.
34:39This could be a good spot.
34:40Gunch use their whisker-like barbels to check out potential food.
34:56So a bite may not be the first thing I'll feel on my line.
35:02Gunch very often what they do is they investigate beforehand and you feel this sort of a bit of a jarring.
35:08It's almost a sort of metallic sensation.
35:13It's very hard to describe.
35:14You feel a bit of a rattling on the line.
35:17Fishing like this requires complete concentration and experience counts.
35:25I think this is possibly my favourite form of fishing.
35:28One rod and you feel the line.
35:31It's amazing what information you can pick up.
35:34Every time I cast I'm helping to build this mental picture.
35:41Oh, that is something, that is something.
35:43That was definitely...
35:44It's a little bump, bump.
35:45The tantalising tap on my line is followed by hours with no further sign.
36:02But I know that the elusive gunch is rarely caught in a day.
36:06For the next week, I fish every hour I can.
36:18Maybe first in here.
36:20Gunch are easily spooked and slow to shed their suspicions.
36:28So once I've fished a pool, we leave it and head further downstream.
36:33Much clearer sky today.
36:34It will only be a matter of days before we leave the park and run out of unspoiled river.
36:48After a week of frustration, I've caught nothing.
36:51Actually, the water conditions couldn't have been better.
36:58Some really, really classic gunch spots.
37:02OK, they can just sit and not feed for a long period of time.
37:06But, you know, it just is so odd that I spent so much time without even a touch from the fish.
37:13It feels like there's hardly anything here.
37:17The recent big flood may have washed many fish out of this area.
37:22And although I've seen a fish eating gharial, it's only the one.
37:29I'm really starting to wonder if there are any gunch left in this river.
37:35My failure so far is making me question my approach.
37:38And inevitably, I'm starting to compare this experience with my first gunch expedition ten years ago.
37:47The time that has passed since I last fished for gunch, have I changed in that time?
37:53Am I a better fisherman? I don't know.
37:56Is my ability to see below the surface better?
38:00It was one of the Greek philosophers who said you never step into the same river twice.
38:06I could modify that slightly. You never cast into the same river twice because it is not the same river and you are not the same person.
38:18But one thing is the same. My determination to catch my quarry.
38:23I'm going to fish round the clock.
38:25Garial hunt during the day. Maybe the gunch will be more confident to feed after dark.
38:39Somewhere down there is the fish I'm after.
38:43I'm just trying to imagine what it's doing right now at this moment.
38:48The chances are it's picked up the scent of this bait.
38:52Maybe it's just moments away from taking. I don't know. It could be very close to the bait.
39:02Oh, yep.
39:04It's coming in.
39:07There's something there. I'm going to swing it up here.
39:10Ah, it's a turtle.
39:23I've got to be a bit careful of this thing.
39:26It's not what I was hoping for.
39:28But this turtle isn't a complete disappointment.
39:30When I caught that big gunch from the same pool, I had one of these fellas.
39:36This one's probably about seven or eight pounds.
39:39I had one of these about 200 pounds.
39:42A turtle could be a good omen.
39:45And it better be.
39:47Tomorrow will be our final day in the national park.
39:51My last chance to catch a gunch.
39:53My guides say there are just two fishing pools left before the river returns us to civilization.
40:06I plan to fish this one through the morning and move to the second this evening.
40:11But I hadn't bargained on company.
40:16There's a tiger prince coming along this direction.
40:19And this is a big animal.
40:20And the other thing is, this is very fresh.
40:23Probably this morning, probably a matter of just hours.
40:28So, and with this long grass here, you know, it might not be that far away even now.
40:38With a potential man-eater on the prowl, it's maybe not a great idea to fish here.
40:43So we're moving downstream to the final pool.
40:47I want to fish from that rock.
40:51I have one last opportunity for a showdown with the gunch.
41:00A high casting position could help prevent my line wrapping round any large underwater boulders.
41:08The hours tick by.
41:09It's looking like another day of promise, followed by disappointment.
41:26Oh, there we go.
41:27A distinct tap on my line.
41:28Oh, there we go.
41:29A distinct tap on my line.
41:30Oh, there we go.
41:31Oh, there we go.
41:32Oh, there we go.
41:33It's looking like another day.
41:34It's looking like another day of promise, followed by disappointment.
41:36It's looking like another day of promise, followed by disappointment.
41:40Oh, there we go.
41:41Oh, there we go.
41:42A distinct tap on my line.
41:55I've hooked something.
41:56I'm going to come here.
41:57But I'm struggling to control it.
41:58This feels a bit different.
42:02Might need the boats.
42:03Oh, you're dead.
42:04Oh, .
42:09I've hooked something.
42:10I'm going to come here.
42:12But I'm struggling to control it.
42:15This feels a bit different.
42:18Might need the boat.
42:20i'm on the babai river in nepal there's something on my line and i need to react fast
42:41might need the boats
42:48the fish is still on but i'm in danger of losing it
43:09let's go out
43:11in the confusion the fish has taken the advantage and found a snag
43:15the line's around a rock
43:23damn
43:24that's gone
43:26it's gone
43:28oh no
43:30i had it hooked and yet somehow it snagged
43:44the position of a rock in the wrong place
43:58i've been here before
44:02it's in the fast water
44:06an ominous tap on my line
44:08a big fish forcing me into the water
44:14and with me out of my element everything in the balance
44:22that time victory
44:26this time defeat
44:30i've reached the end of this investigation
44:40my experience just now makes me think a gunch was responsible for what happened to narwhal and ali
44:54of course i'm disappointed not to catch my culprit
44:56but perhaps this is the right ending for the story of my greatest adversary
45:04after nine years of catching all manner of river monsters all around the world perhaps it's appropriate
45:08that it was finally the gunch that reminded me of my fallibility as an angler
45:14and of course in the broader context
45:16uh...
45:17this is a draw
45:18it's one all
45:19i'm
45:20sort of happy to call this quits
45:21and in fact
45:22not always am i
45:24actually fishing for the fish
45:26i'm fishing for the answer
45:27and i did
45:28find the answer
45:29i came here looking for a culprit that i feared was gone for good
45:34i go home with some satisfaction at least
45:38it seems that the giant outlandish gunch
45:41the original river monster is still out there