- 5 months ago
The Grand Fishing Adventure S03E01 (15 April 2025)
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CreativityTranscript
00:00This is the most epic underwater footage I've ever watched unfold in front of me.
00:05Prepare to immerse yourself into the underwater unknowns
00:09that obsess anglers across the globe.
00:11Ready?
00:12I'm fishing maniac Ali Hamidi.
00:15And we're off the underwater mark.
00:16And alongside our underwater experts.
00:19This looks amazing.
00:22And my angling buddies.
00:23Unbelievable. Feels like a very, very good fish.
00:26We'll expose underwater myths and truths.
00:30What is the answer?
00:31Want to see what baits carp love most?
00:34Now we're talking attraction.
00:36Experience tackle and tech in different scenarios.
00:41It's on pitch.
00:42And witness the fine lines between success
00:47and failure.
00:48No, no, no.
00:50All is unearthed in the underwater grand fishing adventure.
00:54Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:57We got ourselves a piggy underwater.
01:11It was March.
01:12I was in France and on my way to meet the team.
01:16Yes, we're on the way to do some underwater filming.
01:21I was travelling south to a serene village 50 kilometres from Reims.
01:26The destination was a lake boasting big carp,
01:29but equally as important, a water with great clarity.
01:32The venue, Chase Lakes, a 12-acre gravel pit with around 250 carp, from pristine stockies
01:41up to 70-pound beasts.
01:44The mission here was to try and catch at least one carp in front of our underwater cameras,
01:49with just seven days to do it.
01:51We'd arrived, the water was looking gin clear, and I hooked up with our underwater dive specialist.
01:58Come on, brother. My man. We're going to do it.
02:01And then my fishing partner for this trip, the man with the brightest teeth in angling,
02:06rocked up.
02:07There he is for his debut. Go on, son. I'm already rolling.
02:11They're all here.
02:14I've been carp fishing for 30-odd years now, but this was my first underwater project.
02:21To say I was excited was an understatement.
02:24It was straight down to work getting base camp set up, including the mission control tent
02:29and all underwater tech.
02:32Here's Lukey, setting up the live cams. Look at this.
02:38Camp is coming together lovely. There's my home.
02:42Prep went on deep into the evening. Well, for most, anyway.
02:47Just watching the water, mate.
02:48But the underwater cameras wouldn't actually go in until sunrise, when their serious business
02:54could really start.
02:59Being March, the sun rose around 6.30am, and then our first job was to get our eye in the sky
03:06airborne to see if we could locate some carp to give us some ideas to where to place the underwater cameras.
03:13We're looking for where the bulk of the fish could be to find a spot where they're obviously residing.
03:20It all changes when you start going out there and making commotion, putting lines in.
03:24But currently, with no lines in the lake, this is where the fish are, okay?
03:29Actually, it's perfect because this is gravel. This is a big stone, and they're all...
03:34So it's like a feature in open water.
03:36Yeah, with at least 20 carp here.
03:38Yeah, wow, look at that. Wow, look at that.
03:41Yeah, that's nice, mate. They're moving a little bit, aren't they?
03:44Yeah. But they obviously like that little area.
03:47When the first underwater camera went in, I started to realise that the planning
03:53and the size of these projects was massive, and the pressure really started to build.
03:59I didn't want to let anybody down.
04:01We had two cameras that could be viewed live from the control tent.
04:06Ru kept an eye from there whilst Luke and I placed the first in open water,
04:10where we'd spotted all the carp on the drone, although this was a bit of a gamble.
04:16It really is a huge disturbance to the carp's environment when you're putting in
04:21underwater cameras with a diver, and then when you start putting them into open water areas,
04:26you haven't got that sort of protection of foliage and snags, so it could be catastrophic.
04:33Would the fish return like we would see or had seen on the drone?
04:38Only time would tell.
04:39The camera is in. Very murky at the moment. Luke's staring up the bottom.
04:47That's the bait going in now, and we've got maggots, we've got tigers, we've got oily, all floating down.
04:55The second live cam we decided to put on a snaggy margin to the right of our swim.
05:00Carp love structure, they feel safer, and this area had undercuts below the bank within the tree roots,
05:07and we even spotted carp chilling there as Luke placed the camera.
05:11Right, so cam two is gone in, and this one's staying a lot clearer. It looks a lot more gravelly over there.
05:20Around both the live cams, we spread bait in long strips, a mix of all sorts, what I call the
05:26butt bait theory, a bit of everything to encourage the carp in, and then hopefully to feed.
05:33It wasn't long before we had the first signs of inquisitive carp on camera.
05:39Didn't get his head down or pay any attention to the bait, but they are there.
05:44More carp appeared minutes later on the other live camera on the margin spot.
05:49Three minutes, and we have seen common. There's two. Carp page is going to be full.
05:57I just couldn't believe how quick the fish moved back onto the spot after all the commotion, but were
06:04they going to feed or not was the big question. That's a big dog. Oh, big mirror.
06:10Ru was keeping research notes on the positive early activity, whilst Luke and I placed a third
06:16camera in open water. We called this a spy camera, as it couldn't be viewed live. Instead,
06:22it had to be retrieved after several hours and viewed retrospectively, basically like carp VAR.
06:28A second spy cam was placed along the same margin as the live cam. Now the serious job of research
06:34could begin in earnest. I can hear some excitement already from the shorelines.
06:39There's this big mirror. Big mirror what keeps coming in. You've got to start naming them though.
06:43You've got to start giving them names. Yeah. Otherwise, you've got to otherwise...
06:47Yeah, big comment, big mirror, big mirror, big comment. They're coming regular.
06:52All right. It was quite a good looking mirror, quite big, quite tall, quite muscular. So Luke.
06:57Luke. Yeah, Luke the mirror. Luke the mirror. I'll have that. Yeah.
07:01This is Luke. Let's have a look. I think that's Luke. It keeps coming from that tree.
07:05Big Luke lives under the tree. Oh, here comes Luke's mate. It's that common.
07:10It's the other side. That's the little, isn't it? Yeah.
07:13Little. Little common. What are we going to call that?
07:17Ian Botham the common. Ian Botham. Cricket back common. It ain't actually much of a cricket.
07:21It's got a bit of a belly on it. Ian Botham enters.
07:24So you've got two cameras that give us a constant barometer of their feeding mood and they're in
07:31different areas of the lake. So if we've got them feeding on both cameras, you've got a good sense
07:36that the bait that's out there is of interest and they fancy some grub. Now we have a day of studying.
07:45Let's see if anything feeds. So far we've only seen one carp drift past on the open water live cam.
07:5399% of the action had been on the marginal snaggy spot but nothing had fed. Here it comes. Here it comes.
08:01Gills are going. Blowing nicely. Oh, interesting. Look at that. Oh, I love it. Looking straight at the lens.
08:09Nice. That's a common. Decent one there. Yeah. Eater. Yeah. Oh, here comes another two common.
08:17Oh, it's feeding. It's feeding. It's feeding. Oh, it had a mouthful. That's the first one feeding
08:24whilst I was filming on my phone. Ian Botham takes a bite. Oh, that's eating. Ian Botham the common's eating.
08:32Yes. The spread of bait we thought was key. Not creating a danger zone and it was important
08:38to top up the spots regularly to keep them fresh and hopefully the carp interested. There we go.
08:45Got more bait coming out onto the open water cam now. See that all falling down beautifully. Yeah,
08:52spread nicely. Ah, bonjour, Lukey. By lunchtime, carp traffic slowed so we topped up both live cam spots
09:00with bait for when they returned. This carp lull was expected as being early spring and carp being cold
09:06blooded. They tend to not feed in the brightest, hottest part of the day and visit the upper layers
09:11to warm up instead. With just two hours of daylight remaining, the open water spot stayed void of carp,
09:17but the snaggy margin suddenly came alive again. Little common has a mouthful. Ian Botham. Yeah.
09:26I think it was. What's this one? What's this one? Steady one. Steady one. Come alive, innit?
09:34During late winter and early spring, you tend to get short feeding windows and now the fish were starting
09:40to gain a bit of confidence. But the interesting thing was, now the rigs were about to go in,
09:45how would they respond? The open water spot, there were so many carp there earlier, but with the disturbance
09:51of Luke, the camera being visible, it had gone dead. Together with no cover, would they return?
09:58Luke had swapped out the two spy cameras at around 2pm and now for the first time we'd get to see what
10:05was happening subsurface on these spots. So this is the left hand. Left hand spot, yeah. So this is an area
10:14which is still a little bit open water, but it's in a corner of the lake, isn't it? Come on then,
10:19show me what we're going to see on this camera. Okay, so they've come in, they're cruising over.
10:27Was that the best clip? No, no, let's go to a different clip. Biggest stamp of fish, aren't they,
10:33on this spot? Yeah, definitely. Cruising over. Oh, look at that. Okay, that is a spot I would say
10:40to have some sort of little ziggy on there. But go on, let's go again. Right, so this is the other
10:45spy cam under the trees. Look at that one's eyeballs. Right, next clip. Oh, we sped this one
10:51up for us. Coming in and out, no feeding really. Smaller stamp of fish, aren't they? Smaller brat pack.
10:59We were slowly piecing together critical information from the underwater cameras,
11:04including feeding patterns and even fish size.
11:07So that side is showing the bigger fish on that little glimpse we've had on that spy cam though,
11:15isn't it? And when that drone was up this morning, they looked, they looked bigger, didn't they?
11:21Yeah, and critically, critically, there's one really, really important factor about that.
11:26Really important. It's the furthest away from your teeth.
11:37It was the end of the first day of our carp underwater research project in France. The cameras were now off
11:46and Luke and I went out into the darkness to top up the spots with bait. Drizzling a mix of boilies,
11:53maggots, tiger nuts, pellets and chopworm all around the areas with underwater cameras to hopefully keep
12:00the carp interested. Oh, look at that. Then to our surprise, we spotted some right by the boat.
12:08In the darkness out of nowhere, these carps start appearing and this is all happening on the far
12:13margin to the left of our swim. Oh, that's a cheese, that one. That's a biggin.
12:19This kind of intel can be priceless, so we knew we had to pursue this area the following day.
12:24At first light the next morning, we switched on the two live cams to check out the state of play.
12:32Oh mate, I can't believe you're turning the cameras on to that.
12:39I did put quite a bit of bait in there in the hours of darkness last night, right?
12:43I've got a feeling they might have left that area overnight and not stayed there in the numbers,
12:47and now they're coming back. Now the light's coming for shelter and sanctuary, you know,
12:53because on our other live cam, there's a bit of bait there, but there was probably more bait there
13:00yesterday, wasn't there? Or not? Yeah, yeah, yeah. More bait yesterday.
13:04Yeah, so they're fed there at night, but not in the daytime at all. Look, they're feeding right in
13:10front of our eyes here, Ru. It was time to get this show on the road and get the baited Briggs in the
13:16drink to see if we could achieve our goal of catching a carp in front of an underwater camera.
13:21Ru opted for a lock hook wafter rig known as a Medusa. Also, a big bunch of maggots on a long hair
13:28that lays flat on the deck with the bait separated from the hook. That's my go-to winter and spring rig.
13:34I have caught so many carp on this rig, including my PB in February at 71 pound. But seeing how it
13:43performed on an underwater camera was really nerve-wracking. He's a boy, isn't he? Human bait boat.
13:51I'm going to see a diver appear any minute. Oh, that's a carp's tail, not Luke. There's a carp.
13:58Carp spooking. That means Luke's in town. Luke was going to place all of our rigs into position in
14:04front of the cameras by hand. Too far from the camera. If you can hear me underwater, bring it six
14:10inches towards us. Good boy, Luke. You can hear us underwater, Luke, because you are Luke. I can hear
14:18the shouts already. That's cheating. But you've got to remember, this is a big research project.
14:24Everything needed to be precise and on point. And if it were you, you'd do the same. Get in there.
14:31Rig in position. And Luke, here's me underwater. Oh, here comes the grub. Continuing the buffet theory,
14:39the mix of free bait was spread all around the rig to attract the carp, but to also draw them to
14:45the hook bait. He's done a nice job there. First rig locked, loaded and live. We held fire on the
14:53second live cam in open water because due to the lack of carp traffic, we felt it needed more research
14:59in case we needed to change the camera's position to a different area of the lake. I was using
15:05spring-loaded hooking devices, boilie paste around the lead, lock hook spinner rigs with half a pop-up
15:11boilie topped with maggots, all drenched in almond detractors. Serious times. Final inspection's done.
15:21But before we had a chance to get my first hook bait in the water, it's Luke.
15:29Luke is in the facility. Whilst Luke the lofty mirror carp mooched very close to Rue's hook bait,
15:38Luke the diver placed my first rig on the right-hand margin, the same bank as Rue's live cam.
15:46The second spy cam and rig was positioned in the clear area near the far left margin,
15:51where we'd seen the carp the previous night during our baiting up mission.
15:55Three rigs now deployed in front of three underwater cameras.
16:00Rue's live cam 2 on the right margin was already showing some positive signs.
16:05Yep. On the bait. First feed. First feed.
16:09First feed, yeah.
16:11As Ali has his breakfast, the carp also correlate to my dietary behaviours.
16:18Then, things started to happen on the open water live cam spot.
16:22Ooh, live cam.
16:23Oh, live cam.
16:25I'm a live cam.
16:26Seven.
16:27Oh.
16:28Camera one?
16:29Camera one.
16:30A big load just swung through.
16:31Jesus Christ.
16:32How many?
16:36There's a dozen, wouldn't there?
16:39Would you commit your rod to a little mini-zig on that rod, just for bants?
16:43Well, Spot's not doing anything else, really.
16:46We haven't had it fed down, haven't we?
16:47So, do we give it a ziggy-zig?
16:50Well, see if any more cruise past here.
16:52That seemed like a bit of a coast.
16:54Oh, no.
16:54There's another one coming up the back.
16:56Look.
16:57Oh, wow.
16:57Oh, that's a good enough.
16:58Oh, three.
16:59Oh, look.
16:59Another three.
17:00Wow.
17:00What's the time of day as well?
17:01Take a look.
17:02Seven loads of carp.
17:04Cam one.
17:05Then, 40 minutes later.
17:06Oh, yeah.
17:07There you go.
17:08And there's one, two, and one.
17:09Oh, and one, yeah.
17:11Little Brat Pack fish.
17:12Cam one, so the open water swim.
17:15Which has no rig on it at the moment.
17:17No, and we've still got quite a lot of bait, really, from yesterday.
17:21Yeah.
17:22But we've had lots of shoals moving over that spot, so I think we bang a zig on that.
17:27Shall I go and knock up a zig while you watch that?
17:29Because your rig's in the water, I will.
17:31Yeah.
17:31Yeah?
17:32Yeah, I'll let you do all the work.
17:33All right, mate.
17:33It's all good.
17:35But I only managed one foot outside the control tent.
17:39Here we go, Steedon.
17:40Oh, hook bait.
17:41Hook bait.
17:42Hook bait.
17:44Oh.
17:46What happened?
17:47Did it take it?
17:49Did it take you?
17:50No, it was on it.
17:53Yeah.
17:53It didn't.
17:54No, it didn't.
17:54It was that debris.
17:56It touched my hook bait.
17:58It's close, but it just didn't suck it up.
18:02Gutted.
18:03Oh, well.
18:04Close.
18:06Won't be the last time, have we hoped?
18:08No.
18:08Touch.
18:09Touch wood.
18:10The odd carp was still drifting over the open water live camera, so Luke swam out a zig rig.
18:16A two-foot monofilament hook length and a floating fake bug on a lock hook.
18:21This would sit up off the bottom looking like an insect suspended in the water,
18:26that hopefully a passing carp would instinctively schnaffle.
18:30Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.
18:36Oh, it's near the zig.
18:37It's wave the zig.
18:38Wave the zig.
18:39Look at that.
18:40Oh, wow.
18:41That actually spooked off the zig a bit, I think.
18:44Good call, I think, on the zig, guys.
18:46But only time would tell if it worked.
18:50The action did slow down over the middle part of the day, the same as yesterday,
18:54so I took the chance to review some spy cam footage.
18:59And amazingly, what I'm about to watch, you wouldn't, you know, it blows my mind sometimes.
19:05We're only there.
19:07That's where the two cameras are, spy cam, live cam.
19:10So it's fascinating.
19:11So, right, let's watch clip one.
19:13I think that's actually Luke, the carp, that was previously on the live cam bush a lot,
19:21and now it appears to have changed home.
19:24Right, that's one clip.
19:25Next clip.
19:26Big fish again.
19:28Two big fish.
19:31Is that Luke again?
19:34Oh, wow.
19:34Look, the paste on the lead.
19:36So I put the paste on it.
19:38It's something I've always wanted to see.
19:39It's something I do in my fishing a lot.
19:40And just a fish swimming past it is just set off a load of particles from the lead all coming up off the bottom.
19:48That is really good to see because I think that's a plus point.
19:53Oh, wow.
19:54This is, oh, oh, my God.
19:56Oh, my God.
19:57That actually got close to my hook bait.
20:01Sorry, I'm going to have to watch that back.
20:04How close did that get?
20:06I'm just slowing this down.
20:08Wow.
20:09That fish is millimetres from actually the hook bait.
20:16I call that as a close shave.
20:17It blows my mind how close we get without even realising.
20:21Here we go again.
20:23Look at that.
20:23Look at this head.
20:26Oh, my God.
20:28Look at that.
20:29That's a big carp, isn't it?
20:31Ladies and gents, that looks massive.
20:34That is a monster of a carp.
20:39Around 4pm, carp started to visit Roo's margin live cam again.
20:43Oh, my nose turned away.
20:54Oh, that was close.
20:57That is close to catching a ten-pounder.
21:00Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, go on.
21:03Oh, go on, go on, go on.
21:05One more mouthful.
21:06Right, go on, go on.
21:07Oh, no.
21:08How **** is that hook bait?
21:16It was at that moment I realised my super rig wasn't that super.
21:21Same common...
21:22Yeah.
21:22Common...
21:23Ignoring hook bait.
21:27Asterix.
21:29Starting to realise just a ball of maggots with...
21:32that are dead is not that great.
21:35Well, with him in my ear, I thought a change of hook rate was on the cards.
21:41The lights soon began to fade and camera quality started depleting, but there was still just
21:47enough time for our first nibble on camera.
21:50Oh!
21:51Oh!
21:52Oh!
21:53Oh!
21:54What's that?
21:55It spooked.
21:56You've got...
21:57Yeah, I...
21:59It spooked, didn't it?
22:00It spooked, mate.
22:01Oh, I thought it just...
22:03Oh, my God!
22:04Oh, my God!
22:05Is that still recording?
22:06It's still recording, yeah.
22:07That was your long hair.
22:08I wonder if it grabbed your long hair and mugged you off.
22:10No, it didn't.
22:11No.
22:12No, no way.
22:13The lead didn't move.
22:14No.
22:15Yeah, mate, if it grabbed that long hair and pulled that...
22:17100%.
22:18The lead didn't move, though, did it?
22:20It's the lead?
22:21No.
22:22It just completely...
22:23It looked like he had a bite.
22:24It was time for a VAR playback.
22:30Gutted.
22:31Confused.
22:32That totally blew my mind.
22:35What on earth just happened?
22:37I thought you'd got a bite.
22:39I thought it came in, got nailed, and that was that.
22:42It's moved it, though, isn't it?
22:44Look.
22:45Look at the angle of where the hook bit is now.
22:47Or is that all it?
22:48I have no idea.
22:49You've been staring at you all day.
22:59Five days now remained.
23:00With limited time, no bites between us, and observing just light feeding from the carp,
23:06we decided to slightly scale down our hook baits, but also make them more visual too.
23:11Could it make a difference?
23:13Looking on camera now, it's standing out like the cherry on the top.
23:16Absolutely bang on.
23:18To be honest, if it hadn't have been for the cameras, the long hair rig would have stayed there.
23:23But I decided to put higher track pop-ups out there back on the dance floor.
23:30Come on, the carp.
23:31I went with a bright almond pop-up with fake maggots on my right-hand margin rod on the spy cam.
23:38For my left-hand spy cam, it was similar, but the pop-up was topped with worms instead.
23:43Both hook baits sat up nicely off the deck.
23:46How could a carp resist?
23:49Spy cam footage filmed yesterday afternoon also backed up our reasoning for the hook bait switch.
23:55Well, I mean, I'll roll it to show you what I saw last night.
23:58Once we'd cut and we'd finished for the evening and the rods are coming,
24:02some of the footage and some of the fish we saw come on the other spy cam was quite incredible.
24:07There was some really, really big fish coming.
24:10They were feeding coming along from the back.
24:13Not a lot.
24:14Again, little touches to the bottom, little mouthfuls.
24:18But the one thing Rue and I both observed is these fish don't seem to be like sucking with any vigor
24:27or feeding like hard.
24:30And that's one of the other things I try to tell people.
24:33A little bit of buoyancy in your hook bait.
24:36So if they do just suck a little bit, the weight of the hook is negated.
24:40So the whole lot flies into their mouth quicker.
24:43So if they mouth it and they just go a little suck, that hook could go back and catch them.
24:50So we've got, in effect, four different heights of pop-ups with different hook baits out there, different attractors.
24:56There's a lot going on, but it's interesting.
24:59Now is a day of watching and waiting.
25:04Would the pop-ups tempt a carp into taking the bait?
25:07However, just a couple drifted over the open water live cam spot all morning.
25:13Not interested in the hook bait whatsoever.
25:16All the action was on the live cam margin and it was proper edge of the seat stuff.
25:21Oh, oh, go on.
25:23Right, go on, go on.
25:24No, no.
25:25It's not even tough.
25:26No, no.
25:27Just before.
25:28Just suck.
25:29Calm down.
25:30I'll tell you.
25:31I'll tell you when.
25:32Calm down.
25:33I felt we were getting closer to that holy grail bite on camera.
25:37Go on.
25:38Go on.
25:39Go on.
25:40Go on.
25:41Go next to it.
25:42Go on.
25:43Go for it.
25:44Oh, you're Lukey.
25:45You're touching.
25:46I can't take anymore.
25:47I can't take anymore.
25:48I can't take anymore.
25:50We still hadn't managed a pickup, so next we experimented with different amounts of free
26:04bait on each spot in an attempt to stimulate a bite.
26:07Lukey is currently raining it over the pop-up as if we've dropped it out by a bait boat.
26:13I wonder if they come in on that.
26:15Oh, I hope so.
26:16Your big pop-up on the top of it.
26:18You see your pop-up still, can't you?
26:19Yeah, yeah, yeah.
26:21We even tried to emulate fish in a solid PVA bag on the other live cam,
26:25so free bait all tight around the hook bait.
26:29Now Roo's hook bait is right in the middle of a clump of bait.
26:34That's a nice trap.
26:36Yeah.
26:37But our plan didn't pan out as intended,
26:40with Perch just having a party on the open water spot
26:43and then on the margin.
26:47Oh, you are joking me.
26:51A common completely confused Roo.
26:54All for that work.
26:58As an angler, you think you've got this lovely tightly baiting spot
27:01and then without you even knowing, this can happen.
27:05And essentially, you're fishing with just a single hook bait.
27:08With time ticking and no feeding whatsoever on the open water live camera,
27:13once it was dark, we decided to reposition it to a new area.
27:17So we're going to be moving that over at this far margin over here,
27:21which you can't see at the moment because it's pitch black,
27:24but it's going near to the other live cam
27:26because there's a lot of fish traffic up and down, up and down.
27:29Moving it at night would mean less disturbance over the camera spots in the daytime,
27:33maximising the hours available for filming and also, hopefully, our chances.
27:39There he is.
27:40One more lot of effort.
27:43This was also about learning and gathering info on the carp's habitat
27:46in these cold conditions with a fast ticking clock.
27:51Four days to go and further scaling down of our hook baits,
27:55a trim-down pop-up with fake casters for me to a newly moved live cam.
28:00And for Rue's live cam, he'd switch to a small boilie and a mini pop-up
28:04known as a snowman due to the way it sits.
28:08Slightly smaller hook baits also went out on the spy cams too,
28:12with the slight scaling down do the trick and entice a bite on camera.
28:17Another change was afoot too, but now from mother nature herself,
28:21the wind had got up and had changed direction
28:24and was now pushing nicely towards the bank with both the live cams.
28:28Carp often follow a new wind
28:30and it also helps to add a little more oxygen in the water,
28:33so something in our favour.
28:36Oh, this one coming with a bit of intent.
28:38They're moving much faster now, though, far more aggressively.
28:41They're far more stimulated.
28:43That wind changing.
28:45Stirred them up a bit.
28:46A little bit of increase in oxygen.
28:49Here's a cormon.
28:49Hello.
28:51Hello there, how you doing?
28:53Things felt good as the fish traffic increased on the two live cameras.
28:58Turn.
29:00This is mad, isn't it?
29:01Both of us.
29:02Yeah, two cameras.
29:04And again.
29:05They're feeding on, but look,
29:06they're touching down on both cameras as we speak.
29:10I think he's just mouthed my lead.
29:12Look.
29:13Yeah, yeah.
29:13Look, he just ate some of my lead.
29:15As the day progressed,
29:17Roo and I became absolutely glued to the screens
29:20in anticipation of hopefully that first bite on camera.
29:25Suddenly turned into a really good film at the cinema, right?
29:30Don't you think?
29:31Could be one of those sort of hangover films,
29:33you know, where you've been for a night out
29:36and all you want to do on a Sunday
29:38is just veg on the couch,
29:42eat crap food,
29:44and watch two other...
29:45Watch two geezers eating crap food.
29:47Eat crap food.
29:51But it wasn't long before the action movie
29:53became more of a horror film.
29:55Oh, oh, oh.
29:57Oh, that's the line.
29:58That's the line.
29:59No, it's got no...
30:01The carp just kept ignoring my hook bait.
30:04This one's got to take it.
30:05This one's going to...
30:06No.
30:07Oh, my God.
30:09I was really starting to get frustrated.
30:12Why aren't they going on that hook bait?
30:15Been on my life, Cam.
30:16Go on, take me hook bait.
30:18Go on, take me hook bait.
30:19No.
30:20No?
30:21They were showing slightly more interest in my hook baits.
30:23That definitely had more attractors in them.
30:26Go on, you want it, don't you?
30:27You want it, you little musculos.
30:30Oh, that's the sort of attention we want to a hook bait.
30:34Roo then went for a hook bait switch
30:36after I talked him into trying a small bait orb packed full of attraction
30:40and cage stuffed with paste, luncheon meat and chop worm.
30:44Would they show more interest now?
30:45Go on, go on.
30:47Going straight for the bait orb.
30:48Going straight for it.
30:49Oh, he spat it out.
30:51Went straight for it, though, boy.
30:53There's plenty of attractors.
30:57Went straight for it, spat it straight out.
30:59Now we're talking attraction.
31:03Now we're talking attraction is what I'm talking about.
31:06First thing it went for in the swim.
31:09That's where we need to be.
31:11All right, Mr Smug.
31:12Calm down.
31:13It was a positive step forward, but we still hadn't converted.
31:17I thought you were away, didn't you?
31:18I don't know what to say to me.
31:19I thought you were away.
31:20This is you.
31:22Yeah, I thought we were away.
31:23I thought that was it.
31:24We're in the game, though.
31:25We've got a hook bait.
31:27We've got a hook bait they're going to take.
31:29Well, we thought we could be making progress,
31:31but then we reviewed some spy cam footage
31:34from the far left margin spot.
31:36A big old carp kept returning to the spot,
31:39but it was really picky eating the little food items,
31:41ignoring the bait orb and hire tract hook bait that I had on.
31:45So some serious food for four overnight for Rue and I,
31:48we'd have to come up with hook baits
31:50to match how they were feeding.
31:53What is the answer?
31:55Just three days left to crack the code
31:59or we'd fail our mission.
32:02A new dawn, another new hook bait philosophy.
32:06We just couldn't ignore all this evidence.
32:08We decided to scale down even further.
32:10A tiny Faker Scargo with a foam insert
32:13soaked in almond detractor with a maggot topper
32:16went out on both my spy cam and live cam.
32:19Picked the bones out of that.
32:21Rue scaled down two on his live cam.
32:23A small piece of foam and two fake casters
32:26which sat on the deck nicely,
32:28ready to fly up into a carp's mouth at the slightest suck.
32:32We're going to see now whether these fish come in
32:34and want to eat anything,
32:36and if they do, whether the hook bait gets picked out
32:38or gets completely Ian Beeled.
32:41Our two spy cam rods also went out with smaller hook baits
32:45and as time was ticking we also added a third spy cam
32:48and a rig to an open water area we'd not yet tried.
32:52We've gone from four rods in the lake
32:54to five rods in the lake.
32:57The story of the day thus far.
33:00As the day progressed,
33:01my live cam had just the odd carp drift in
33:04and with no signs of any feeding
33:06but just 20 yards away,
33:08Rue's live cam was a different story.
33:10Gone, gone, gone.
33:14Mate, it is so, so much more confident on that spot.
33:18He is not noticing the hook bait.
33:20It's going right next to it.
33:22Today's the day.
33:24The air pressure had now dropped.
33:27It started to drizzle
33:28and it felt what we anglers call carpy.
33:31Apart from Ronnie Cray, my live cam was quiet
33:34but Luke had more positive spy cam footage from the spot
33:37that had showed the big carp feeding yesterday.
33:40We've got very big resident fish living over there
33:43and the good thing is it's coming in each day,
33:46feeding, feeding, getting away with it.
33:48The good thing is, from my perspective,
33:50is that it's not like the rig has been in its mouth or anything.
33:54It's just not taking a hook bait.
33:58Look at you, watch your screen.
34:00Is that that mirror or is that the common?
34:04This is the mirror, yeah.
34:05What are we putting that weight-wise?
34:06Big, big, massive fish, yeah.
34:0960-pounder.
34:10Bare minimum.
34:12That would be mega if we could catch a carp of that size
34:15on an underwater camera.
34:17Then all eyes were back on Rue's live cam
34:19where the carp finally seemed to be gaining confidence
34:22around his hook bait.
34:24Go on, go on, go on, go on.
34:26That sucked it up.
34:31And completely blown you out.
34:33The carp feeding on tiny food items
34:35makes them really hard to catch
34:37but this was the most positive we'd seen.
34:40Go on, go on, go on.
34:43No.
34:44All I was thinking,
34:45was I ever going to get a pick-up?
34:48Surely it had to happen soon.
34:52Rue's hook bait then seemed to catch a carp's eye.
34:55Was this going to be the moment?
34:57Close, close, close.
34:58Are you recording?
34:59Yeah, yeah, yeah.
35:00Go on.
35:02Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
35:04Yeah, you got it.
35:05It's on.
35:06It's on.
35:07Yeah.
35:07It's on.
35:10Come on.
35:10Come on, Rue.
35:19On our fourth day of underwater filming and fishing in France,
35:23Rue had finally got our first bite on camera.
35:26Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
35:32Yeah, you got it.
35:33It's on.
35:34And the team's excitement levels are just blown off the roof.
35:38Come on.
35:39Come on, Rue.
35:41I'm going to do some filming in your face.
35:44No.
35:44So you got some...
35:45I'm trying to stop it going back to snag
35:48and I'm not giving it any.
35:49Just get that tip under and keep your line.
35:51Keep your line down underwater.
35:54That's it.
35:54Get the angle.
35:56You're going to win.
35:58Oh.
36:06Cut off?
36:08Yeah, cut off.
36:13All that effort, all that time,
36:16and then to lose it,
36:19I was absolutely devastated.
36:22Oh, my God, man.
36:24I really felt for Rue.
36:27I knew how much that carp would have meant to him
36:30and on a similar project many years ago,
36:32I lost my first carp underwater too.
36:35Just sat there, four days, first take.
36:41Today was the most active, though.
36:42We found the hookbait, what worked.
36:45Really small, small little caster,
36:48tiny little bit of foam.
36:49Had a couple of fish gummit.
36:52And then that one, it took it.
36:55That, yeah, that was my worst fishing moment to date.
37:04We'll go again.
37:11Spirits had been seriously dampened in camp,
37:14but we had to keep going and build on the positives.
37:16That's nice.
37:18Well done, Luke.
37:19After the commotion of the lost carp
37:21and subsequent diver disturbance,
37:24both live cams on the right margin went really quiet.
37:27But what we didn't realise at this stage
37:30was my spy cam spot,
37:31with my small fake snail and maggot hookbait
37:34out to the left margin,
37:36was getting some serious attention
37:38from the same big mirror
37:40that we'd seen frequently visiting
37:42for the last couple of days.
37:43It then totally locked its sights
37:46onto my hookbait.
37:53The rod going off totally blindsided me
37:56as we obviously hadn't seen the footage yet.
38:00Boys!
38:02Yep.
38:03Full panic setting.
38:04Get the life jacket!
38:06Get the life jacket!
38:07Get in the boat!
38:08There is a god.
38:10All the team had to work fast.
38:12I had to get in the boat
38:13and out to the fish ASAP
38:16as there were plenty of snags
38:17out where I'd hooked it.
38:19Luke got in the water rapido
38:21to follow me out,
38:22armed with an underwater camera
38:24to hopefully capture some of the fight.
38:27This is amazing.
38:30Two bites in one day.
38:33Lovely.
38:34Nikos, the director,
38:35grabbed a camera
38:36and legged it around the lake
38:38for another angle.
38:39Not a bad turn of pace
38:40for a 50-year-old.
38:41All right, Luke, people!
38:45Unbelievable.
38:46It felt a decent carp
38:48and was putting up
38:49a dogged fight.
38:50Come on, dog!
38:52Hang on, baby.
38:53Oh, Nick's falling
38:54in the roof over there.
38:55Yeah.
38:56You like the bus?
38:58Yeah!
39:01Come on, he's there, he's there.
39:02Come to the boat.
39:03I had to make sure
39:05the line didn't get tangled
39:06around Luke.
39:07Come on.
39:08That would be a disaster.
39:10Hang him about a bit.
39:11It was now starting to tire
39:12and it looked like
39:13the huge mirror
39:14that had been constantly
39:15visiting my spot.
39:17I just had to land it.
39:19As I grabbed the net,
39:21it made another deep,
39:22powerful lunge.
39:23My heart was in my mouth.
39:27Deep breath.
39:28Deep breath.
39:29It only takes a second,
39:45ladies and gentlemen.
39:46Luke, give me your fist, brother.
39:47Give me your fist.
39:48You say it again?
39:49Don't go.
39:53Success at last,
39:55especially after constantly
39:56tweaking, adjusting
39:58to catch that wily
39:59carp that had been
40:00beaded on the spot.
40:02Well done.
40:03We're in it to win it.
40:04Well done, crew.
40:05That's how quickly,
40:06ladies and gentlemen,
40:07you can go from a team
40:09feeling like
40:10to feeling good again.
40:14Life and times
40:15of underwater filming.
40:16Oh, mate.
40:17Made up now.
40:19Made up.
40:20I was so relieved
40:21after me losing one
40:23just an hour earlier.
40:26Fishing can be
40:27such an emotional
40:28roller coaster.
40:29Just how big
40:31was this mirror
40:32we'd been seeing
40:32the last few days?
40:3435-4.
40:35Let's call it that.
40:3635-4.
40:38We're off the mark.
40:39We're off the mark.
40:40The only interesting thing
40:41is we're now able
40:42to judge that lens
40:44on that camera.
40:45We thought that fish
40:47was possibly 70 pounds.
40:50But it wasn't.
40:52And boys,
40:53all I want now,
40:55go on,
40:55just give us a little kiss
40:56on each cheek.
40:58Yeah.
40:59Ooh.
41:01There's nothing,
41:03honestly.
41:04So much data.
41:06We're learning so much
41:07doing this type of
41:08underwater study,
41:10research.
41:10Luke,
41:12the greatest human
41:14bait boat
41:15on planet Earth.
41:17Rui,
41:17it's magical, eh?
41:18Oh,
41:18it's unreal.
41:19Unreal.
41:20Only takes a second
41:21to get a bite.
41:23Escargot.
41:26To catch a carp
41:27in front of an
41:28underwater camera
41:29feels about
41:3010 times harder
41:31than a normal
41:32fishing situation
41:33due to the added
41:34commotion,
41:35cables,
41:36and of course
41:37the cameras themselves.
41:38But we'd done it
41:39and now wanted more.
41:41It was the penultimate day
41:43and from the morning
41:44onwards,
41:44both live cams,
41:45for whatever reason,
41:47were virtually
41:48carp-less.
41:50And most that did
41:51drift into view
41:51were just tiny stockies.
41:54I reckon that's about
41:54seven pounds.
41:57We also played back
41:59the morning footage
42:00from the three spy cams.
42:01Even they showed
42:02minimal carp traffic
42:03with no signs of feeding.
42:05Well,
42:05not from carp anyway.
42:08But the afternoon
42:09spy cams
42:09were still out
42:10in the lake recording.
42:11So,
42:12what we didn't know
42:13at the time
42:13was that mine
42:14was surrounded
42:15by tench
42:16on a feeding frenzy.
42:21Oh.
42:26I think it's a fish on.
42:28I have no idea
42:29what this is.
42:29Doesn't feel very big.
42:31What is it?
42:31It's a tench.
42:33It's a tench.
42:35There you go.
42:37A Judy Dench tench.
42:39My first ever
42:40caught in an underwater camera.
42:42Beautiful fish.
42:43When I was growing up,
42:45I literally used to
42:47just dream about these
42:49red eyes,
42:50teddy bear eyes.
42:52They are one of the most
42:53stunning freshwater species
42:55out there.
42:57After no more action,
42:59with only one day remaining
43:01and in the name of research,
43:02we decided that
43:03Roo would leave
43:04his rods out
43:05during the hours
43:06of darkness
43:07just to see
43:08if he could catch one
43:09off the spot.
43:10Plus,
43:11we also had a secret weapon
43:12for this covert mission.
43:14The good thing is,
43:15the good thing is,
43:15with those teeth,
43:16we can see anything
43:17in the dark.
43:18Go on,
43:19let's say...
43:20Oh, God.
43:21Nice one out.
43:23But the angler in me
43:24was so desperate
43:25just to put a fish
43:26on the bank.
43:27No underwater camera.
43:29Let's see
43:29if I can still catch a carp.
43:31He's away.
43:38I haven't wanted a fish
43:39in so much
43:40in all my life.
43:41His name is Roo.
43:43He's got a big carp.
43:45His name is Roo.
43:46He's got a big carp.
43:49It's a common
43:49and if you go back
43:51a little bit further,
43:52that common carp
43:53is now Roo Dog's
43:55common carp
43:56and he's off the mark.
43:58And this man
44:00has struck the gold.
44:03So he could still
44:05actually catch him.
44:06We safely retain the carp
44:08ready for an inspection
44:09in the imminent
44:10morning light.
44:14Our final day in France
44:16and time to check out
44:17Roo's well-deserved
44:18covert consolation
44:20common carp.
44:2330!
44:25I'm going to give you
44:2634 on the button.
44:27There we go.
44:28Go on, boy.
44:30It might not
44:31have been on a live cam
44:32but cameras were off.
44:36It just proves to you
44:37or it proves to me
44:39how much harder it is
44:41to get that live bite.
44:43Yeah, it's no coincidence, mate.
44:44The technology
44:45for what we learn
44:47is brilliant
44:47but it is the hardest
44:49set of circumstances
44:50to try to catch a carp
44:51with all that,
44:52all those concoctions
44:53and cables
44:54and divers.
44:55but the rewards
44:57are there
44:57and this is almost
44:58a part of the
44:59piecing the jigsaw together
45:00to show people
45:01the tactics we've been using,
45:03what we've evolved to
45:04throughout the session
45:05is a good way to fish
45:07on this particular lake,
45:09in this particular situation
45:10and I'm really glad
45:12you're walking away
45:13with an absolute belter
45:14and there's still
45:15a little minuscule
45:17time to go.
45:18A little minuscule time to go.
45:19Unfortunately,
45:20we didn't manage
45:21to catch any more carp
45:22but it was still
45:23mission accomplished.
45:24We came here to catch a carp
45:27in front of the underwater cameras
45:29on a venue
45:29we'd never seen before,
45:31very little intel,
45:32very little time,
45:34we worked hard,
45:35we rolled the dice
45:36and we succeeded
45:37and every ounce
45:39of the information gained
45:40can be used
45:41for future underwater projects.
45:43Yeah, yeah, yeah.
45:44Go on.
45:46Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
45:47Of course I'm still gutted
45:50I didn't land a carp
45:51on an underwater camera.
45:53Oh!
45:54But on the flip side,
45:56I did catch a common
45:57and that did make me happy.
45:59This fishing trip
46:00was definitely
46:01the biggest eye-opener
46:03I have ever had.
46:05It was an absolute honour
46:06to fish with Rue,
46:07a proper lovely guy.
46:09Let's not forget
46:10about those Nashers.
46:11Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.
46:17We'll see you next time.