In the outback of australia A mysterious beast is causing mayhem...
They're both getting dragged towards the river.
One I never thought I'd ever encounter.
It's bigger for me than a lot of other big fish moments.
A mighty predator... Like muhammad ali, he's the king of the river, And he knows it.
Waiting in the shadows.
If you dove down and seen a fish come at ya That's twice your body size,
Would you stay in the water?
I'm jeremy wade, fisherman and adventurer.
For more than 35 years, I've traveled the globe, Hunting for monsters.
Look at this beast.
But mysteries are still out there.
Something behind me.
I'm journeying into the unknown to reveal... Yes! Ah!
The secrets hidden in these dark waters.
I've come to australia to investigate a recent incident.
Somewhere inland, On a remote river system... Two friends were out fishing
When their boat sprang a leak and sank.
A few weeks later, they went back to recover it...
And from out of the gloom, A six foot beast attacked them.
The shocking encounter left them battered and bruised.
This water is far from the domain of potential suspects Like crocodiles and bull sharks.
So what was this aggressive beast?
And why would it go after people?
The exact details of the story are sketchy,
But what I do know is that it happened in one of the many
Little-known rivers on the eastern side of australia In new south wales.
So I begin my investigation in sydney, The major city in this part of the world.
Sydney has a dark past.
In the 1800s, it was a place where convicted criminals From britain arrived by the thousand,
Shipped here to live out their sentences.
This is cockatoo island, Which sounds very exotic and tourist-y, But it used to be a prison.
It was like the alcatraz of australia.
And even if you managed to break out And you jumped in the water,
You ran the risk of being eaten by sharks.
Being a major port, sydney has a number of fish markets And they're a great place to start
Finding out what lives in the water here.
This story I've heard, the problem is, It's only bare bones.
I don't have much in the way of detail.
But I do know it was too far inland to be a bull shark,
And it definitely wasn't anything like a grouper.
So, what else could it have been?
Are there any big fish around here that aren't on my radar?
I'm not looking for small fish, I'm looking for big fish.
So I come in here looking for one thing, Or with a particular line of inquiry
And I just find it really easy To get side-tracked in a fish market.
I'm just looking at all sorts of stuff, Do you have any other river fish, but big river fish?
Uh, I think we don't have the river fish here.
So everything's from the sea?
It's all from the sea, yeah.
Do you ever see any other fish, river fish?
Some barramundi, big one is back here.
Oh, I see, alright. I saw the barramundi, yeah.
And see a silver perch that maybe might go to the river.
Silver perch?
Yeah, and murray cod too.
Murray cod? Yeah.
Definitely murray cod?
Yeah, definitely murray cod.
How big are the ones that you see?
About one feet or two feet.
Right, okay. You have those?
Sometimes we have those, but not today.
Not today? Yeah, not today.
You see any bigger than that?
Oh, no, we never see bigger. No.
And where do they come from?
I don't know.
Right, okay, thank you.
Thanks very much. Yeah.
Of the three fish he mentioned, Barramundi aren't found around here
And silver perch are too small to scare anyone, But the murray cod is a surprise.
Well I've been to australia a few times before And I've never caught or even seen a murray cod,
Or, even for that matter, heard anybody talk about it.
And it's never really... I've never considered going after one Because as I understood, I mean,
This is a fish that I knew about, But as far as I understood, They were pretty much extinct.
The early settlers just wiped them out.
Over-fished them.
Could it mean that the beast is back?
The murray cod, which is not related To the atlantic or pacific cod, Is a powerful predator
And it was one of the largest freshwater fish in the world.
Records from the late 1800s tell of a fish
Reaching six feet in length and a weight of 250 pounds.
I don't know exactly where the story About the attack on the swimmers came from,
And new south wales is the size of texas.
To determine whether there's a chance That the murray cod could be a suspect,
I need to find out more about this freshwater predator.
I'm hoping I can get some clues From the oldest library in australia.
With over six million items in its archive, Can I find a monster from the past?
This is quite a treasure trove of information Going back 150 years or so.
The challenge now is to make some sense of it.
The paper states, "a murray river cod has been caught Weighing over 250 pounds."
It's may 21st, 1857.
We've got four guys, And they've got this fish on their shoulder.
For a river fish that is big.
It's on his back, Tail is nearly down to the ground And it's actually got a weight on here.
It's 97 pounds, which is a precise weight.
That looks like a 97 pound fish.
But there's something more alarming here.
These pictures here tell a different story.
These are massive catchers.
This is fishing on an industrial scale.
We're talking about a river here, We're not talking about the open ocean.
It's quite disturbing.
And that was only the start.
Records show a fish massacre With huge numbers being taken from the rivers.
"in 29 years, 26,214,502 pounds Of murray cod has been eaten by the people of melbourne.
Last year it was only half a million pounds,"
So although we're talking big numbers, There is a really steep decline there.
There's something else here.
"we understand they've become very scarce."
It looks like the monster murray cod were fished out.
A sadly familiar tale.
But within the records, one location keeps cropping up.
That's the same general area where the story came from.
The macquarie river.
If murray cod are back, could they be there today?
After five hours of driving, I've reached the macquarie river.
It's nice. Nice. Very nice.
Things look promising.
It's a small river, But experience has taught me that sometimes
Big fish can be found in surprising places...
If the conditions are right.
It's not just a boring uniform channel, There's stuff going on.
There's rapids.
Rapids means oxygenation.
There's oxygen in the water.
There's slower pools, There's rocks, There's weeds.
Perfect for big fish to hide.
Enough talking.
I think get the gear and go down there and look for... Look for some spots.
This is clearly deep water, big boulders, And moving quite slowly, so I'll put something down
On the bottom here and see if anything Mooching around bumps into it.
Yes!
I'm on a mission to find the perpetrator Of an underwater attack in australia.
The strange thing is, My first suspect is a fish I thought was extinct, The murray cod.
We have a fish on.
And now, I've hooked into something.
There's a large, bronzy fish on there.
Gonna jump back and then come around.
Maybe not.
Okay.
Whatever it is, is still quite strong.
Just letting it tire itself out.
I just saw something there.
It's right in close. It's right in close!
Puff of mud.
It's a carp.
I guess I shouldn't be too surprised.
I knew there were carp in australia, But this is the first one I've caught.
I've fished for carp for a long time, And they can grow big.
In europe they can grow to well over 60 pounds.
But here in australia, 25 pounds is considered a giant.
Sort of mixed feelings holding this.
It's nice to catch a fish.
Carp are an invasive species here in australia.
These take over waters like these Where you don't have such a diversity Of the native species.
Part of me wishes they weren't here, But you can't put the genie back in the bottle.
It's got to that point where Even if you were to kill every single one that was caught,
It wouldn't actually make any difference.
Off he goes.
I'm guessing that's not a fish on its own.
I'm guessing there's plenty more where that came from.
And I'm not wrong.
Soon I'm into another.
Carp have taken over this river.
With these fish in charge eating everything up, There's little chance for anything else
To get a foothold.
Time for a new plan.
I need to find out more about the attack on the two men.
It's supposed to have happened In this part of new south wales,
So I head to a local watering hole To see if I can find some answers.
I'm barely in the door, and there it is Right in front of me.
This the first ones I've seen.
The first ones I've seen in the flesh.
Not only are they murray cod, They're decent-sized murray cod.
This one looks to be about 70 pounds.
Look at the size of the mouth on these.
That's sort of a fist-sized mouth.
- Hello. - George.
A fisherman named stewart Says he's seen a murray cod.
And not just on a wall.
We've started our own murray cod hatchery here To make sure they stay in that river.
Practices today of catch and release are a big thing
And everyone's into it too, which is really great.
And because of that they're making a comeback.
It's lookin' really good.
Clearly some cod managed To survive the commercial fishing.
But these trophies remind us Of a time when anglers also killed fish.
Now, it sounds like restocking and better fishing practices
Have helped the murray cod begin to fight back.
But stewart says this iconic australian fish Does have a dark side.
They're an aggressive fish, Especially the bigger they are, and yeah,
He's the king of the river and he knows it.
He knows, it's like muhammad ali, He's knows he's the best and he's gonna take out
Anything that gets in front of him.
Anything that goes past their territory, They'll eat it even if they're not hungry.
Stewart hasn't heard much about the swimmers' story, But another local named clarkie has.
I have heard a lot of stories, jeremy.
And I have heard that story, yeah.
I mean, I've hear lots of stories Every year about big fish.
One in particular sticks out.
There was a bloke that got a job as a clearance diver.
And one night on the dam to look after the dam alone
And check it for any irregularities or whatever And he went down and he came back up
It was 10 or 15 minutes later And said, "you can have your job, I don't want it."
Why was he scared?
Well, I suppose to put things in context, If you dove down 30 meters
And seen a fish come at ya that's twice your body size, Would you stay in the water?
So, where abouts was that?
Copeton. Copeton dam.
Clarkie is certain that this was a murray cod.
And he advises me not to take them lightly.
And they're predatory fish and the inside Of their mouth is razor sharp.
I've had rods break, I've had hand reels k-ting! Out in the river.
You never find 'em again. They're a very aggressive fish.
If you get onto a big one, hang on.
You're in for the ride, because he'll take ya.
So against the odds, One of the world's largest freshwater fish Has come back from the brink.
The locals are very clear That murray cod numbers here are rising.
But are they growing big enough and aggressive enough
To be responsible for the story I heard about?
I need to meet one face to face.
Copeton dam is only about 30 miles away.
Could this be my chance to find the culprit And see a fish I once thought had gone?
Right, well it's very important That I don't get ahead of myself,
But I am starting to anticipate the moment Of catching my first murray cod.
I need to cast my mind back now to about 35 years
When I first started traveling to various far-flung rivers And there was a short list then
Of freshwater fish that I wanted to catch.
And then there were other fish which, As far as I was concerned, were completely off the list.
They'd gone, I was too late.
Born too late, And the murray cod was this fish That had all but disappeared.
So, holding that murray cod, If I get to be in that position,
Is going to be a moment that is bigger for me Than a lot of other big fish moments.
But copeton dam is not going to be easy.
It's so big, you could almost spend your entire life Just to get to know a place like this.
It's a bit of a needle in a haystack situation.
So...
Where exactly do I start?
Yes!
I've traveled to australia To reveal the identity of an underwater attacker.
All signs point to a fish driven to near extinction... Hello, there.
But possibly making a comeback... A murray cod.
Copeton dam is almost 18 square miles of water.
That's about the size of manhattan.
As a flooded river valley, it's filled with sunken trees,
Perfect cover for a big ambush predator.
It's a good place to start.
This resembles one of the species Of fish in here, the bony brim.
I'm going to fish with super-sized lures Mimicking prey fish and attracting the murray cod
With their vibrations.
My subsurface investigation begins.
But it's not easy.
Any predators will by lying in wait, Hidden among the sunken trees and boulders.
So I'm trying to get as close as I can Without getting caught up.
If I'm not getting snagged... Ah, it's off, it's off, it's off.
I'm probably in the wrong spot.
'bout a dozen kangaroos all watching me very intently then
So I was thinking, "do they know something I don't know?
Is something about to happen?"
And they've all just hopped away now, So maybe I read too much into that moment.
Yes! Fish on, fish on.
Oh, it's caught in a log.
It's caught in a log.
It's feeling very strange. Feels very strange.
I wonder if it's a turtle or something weird.
Oh there it is! It's off, it's off, it's off.
I mean, it's off the snag.
Still there.
It's coming up to the surface.
Gonna... it's coming, coming up.
It's coming up. There it is.
First fish from the lake.
Not a murray cod.
This is something called a yellow belly.
And I guess one of those would be Potentially a meal for a large murray cod,
But I think it's good to see some activity.
Yellow belly, also known as golden perch, But they only grow to about 30 inches,
So it's not on the suspect list.
Right, I am now, me personally, I am switching into night-vision mode
And I won't see the land, but I'll hear it.
So, sense of hearing gets dialed up.
It's challenging fishing.
Probably gonna get snagged up a few times, But that's sort of par for the course.
I like night fishing.
It is like you've entered a different world.
I know there are big fish down there, But this is the kind of situation
When you start wondering, "what else might be down there?
Do I wanna fall in?"
Yeah, it's a spooky place at night.
I fish into the night.
Clarkie said the diver's brush with a giant murray cod here Was only a few years back.
These fish can live for up to 50 years.
Chances are, that giant is still around.
After a few hours of sleep, I'm back at it.
In this part of the lake I'm really struck By just how low the water level is.
Quite a steep bank here Which really gives an idea of far the water's fallen.
I'm guessing we're about 60, 70 feet down On the high water mark.
Is this exceptional drop in water causing The murray cod to change their behavior?
Almost three days and nights of fishing With very little to show is taking a toll.
Time to stop fishing.
Sometimes actually stopping fishing Is the best thing you can do because you need to fish
With focus and with energy And as soon as you haven't got that,
You risk missing an opportunity if it comes along.
Local fishermen usually provide the best intel.
How are you?
Alright, how you been gettin' on?
Very quiet. Quiet?
So that's some very interesting information.
Yes, this lake is very low now.
It's 18% of full capacity, So that's less than a fifth.
Basically there's demand for water So they're letting it out And right now it's falling rapidly.
It's gone down just in the last 24 hours.
You can see just how far it's gone down.
It's noticeable. There's a ring.
And the fish don't like that.
For the murray cod it will feel like Someone is taking the roof off their house.
So they'll hunker down and wait it out Until things get back to normal.
So, it's gonna be tough fishing apparently.
Time to leave the dam.
I need to find some new water.
On the map, there's a promising looking river Just a few miles away.
Remote enough, hopefully, for any murray cod To have been left undisturbed.
It's worth a shot.
But the dam isn't the only body of water Struggling with volume.
There's no water.
I've come to australia to investigate A strange underwater attack.
My suspect is a giant predator.
A fish I thought was extinct.
But now I find myself at a river with nothing in it.
So on the map, it's a blue line, But in reality it's just this brown.
I'd heard there'd been big droughts In this part of australia, But I'm now seeing it for myself.
So, it is a river, But it's a river in name only.
Australia has recently been ravaged by extreme drought.
Have the murray cod here become its latest victims?
What I need to do to save myself another wasted journey Is talk to a few more people.
So far, some of my best information Has come from local watering holes.
Perhaps another visit will unearth some new leads.
Canals are that big.
Do you guys know anything about the fish on the wall?
Jeff boyle has fished the waters around here all his life And he tells me about a special river
And an encounter with an extraordinary murray cod.
My dad and his brother were fishing on the gwydir river.
Yeah.
And this is about 55 years ago, And they had a hand line.
And they waited for about 10, 15 minutes And it must've been a bang! Fish.
Bang... my dad's hangin' onto this hand line For all he's worth
And he's yelled out at his brother, "I can't hold him! I can't hold him!
You better give me a hand."
And they're both hanging on, Getting dragged towards the river,
Didn't know what to do, then all of a sudden His brother looked over his shoulder
And there was a tractor.
So they raced back, tied the line off The back axle of the tractor.
And you wouldn't believe it. Guess what.
The tractor started to slowly get dragged
Towards the river and bang, bloop, straight in the river.
So the cod actually dragged The whole tractor into the river.
And there's the tractor just there.
So there's lots of stories about these fish in these parts?
Oh, yes, there is a lot of stories.
And that's the gwydir river, you said?
Gwydir river. Gwydir river, okay.
Well there's no shortage of murray cod stories.
Everywhere else now, there's stories, And they're sort of getting a bit wilder as we go on.
I particularly like the one about the tractor.
The gwydir river.
What was really interesting about the gwydir Was somebody told me it is spring fed.
So even in conditions of drought like we have now, There should still be water.
So, there's fish there.
There should be water.
That fact seems too good, too significant to ignore.
So, I think the gwydir is calling me.
That would seem a very interesting place To be my next stop.
I head a couple of hours north towards the gwydir.
It's in the same general area as the attack story And all the rivers here are connected.
Hopefully a spring will mean that the river And any fish in it are safe from the drought.
It's water.
There is water.
So, this all comes from a spring somewhere apparently, But it's not much water.
That's pretty shallow. It's pretty shallow.
I can almost see the bottom in every... Well I can see the bottom everywhere I look.
And I don't know.
If we're talking about a big fish, Even fish that size
I have trouble sort of imagining they're in here, But... One thing to do is explore.
Explore a bit more.
Hope to find water that's a little bit deeper.
It doesn't look very hopeful to be honest.
But I'm here and I've got some gear.
So I think pack some stuff and go for a bit of a walk.
Shallow water presents a different kind of challenge.
When I'm fishing, very often what I'm trying to do Is I'm trying to imagine the world
From the fish's point of view.
It helps me to fish and I can't quite do it with this water.
Often water is mysterious when it's deep, This is shallow water.
You think you can see all the underwater beaches, you can't.
There are shadows, there are weeds.
Something strange about it.
I think there is a way though that I can shortcut My way to that fish eye vision.
It's deeper than it looks.
Australia is home to some Of the world's deadliest creatures.
I'm investigating an underwater attack.
And now I need to be careful that I don't become the victim.
I'm deep in the remote outback of australia On the hunt for the murray cod.
Anything that goes past their territory, They'll eat it even if they're not hungry.
I'm trying to find out what lies Beneath the surface of this river, where I'm told
Australia's largest freshwater fish could be hunting.
So I've taken the plunge.
That was very interesting, very interesting.
Underwater is a whole other world, You could get lost down there.
This is gonna really help me fish.
There's so much water that I might walk past.
So many places for fish to hide even in water like this.
Even big fish to hide in water like this.
And it's very easy to imagine something lurking out of sight.
And from what I've heard about the murray cod,
And this aggressive behavior, this territorial behavior, In the back of my mind was this thought
That any moment something could just, I don't know ram me,
Sort of suddenly just appear from nowhere.
It's a whole other world and it's a spooky world And it's actually quite a scary world.
With this fresh perspective, I can better focus my approach to find the murray cod.
No pool will be ignored.
Time to tackle up my fly rod.
Unlike the deep water in the dam, this river is shallow And full of weeds.
A fly line should glide along the surface of the water
And the fly will imitate a small prey fish.
These flamboyant creations have a sting in the tail.
Time to gear up and head out.
This is snake country, that's why I'm not going sandals, I'm not going barefoot.
I've got wading boots on there With sort of neoprene socks on.
Which is possibly slightly overdressed for this heat But it's not overdressed for snakes.
The water here is really clear which is a mixed blessing.
It means I can see the fish, which is great, But they can see me, which isn't so great.
So I have to keep my head down below the horizon.
It's very challenging, it's looking at the water, Working out your tactics, how you're gonna
Position yourself, how you're gonna cast.
My first attempts don't attract any attention.
Time to switch to a surface lure.
So the idea of this is to make a bit of disturbance,
But it's sort of the right kind of disturbance.
It's something on the surface in distress.
Such as a fish or even a small mammal.
What happens is they pick that vibration up On their senses and they hit it.
I now know that these pools are deceptively deep But this lure should not go unnoticed.
Yes! Fish on, fish on!
Right at the rod tip.
There we go.
That's a good fish.
Ah!
It's off.
That was a big fish, that was a big fish.
When you have one shot, you have to take it.
I fear my chance has vanished into the deep.
Took it right about three feet away from the rod tip.
Right, I can't dwell on that, the light is fading.
I push on, but unlike at the dam, Fishing in the dark amongst the trees Will be almost impossible.
Time is slipping away.
Ah, damn.
Big dash over the water, a spiky fin, big murray cod On the end of my line and...
It didn't break the line or anything, it slipped the hook.
It wasn't... yeah, it slipped the hook.
So um... What I've got to do now, I've got to sort of reset, Come out tomorrow.
But I'm slowly getting a feel for it.
It's just having the opportunity, reacting correctly, A little bit of luck on your side
And there's the big fish, but it hasn't happened yet.
Maybe tomorrow, that's what we always say, maybe tomorrow.
The next day I continue my search.
I've already covered so much water without success, But I can't stop.
I'm also getting reports that a storm is coming, Finally some water for this parched land.
But the last thing I need is to be caught in a flash flood.
I venture deeper into the river system And keep searching.
Suddenly, like a switch.
There's a fish!
Ah, I missed it, I missed it.
My fly barely hits the water before it's attacked.
Yes!
Oh, and it's off.
Every cast has become a target.
Ugh!
I can't connect.
Off.
But I can identify the fish.
Ugh!
Positive I.D. On murray cod.
It seems that the impending rain And promise of higher water... Yes.
Have brought the beast out of hiding.
It's off.
Now their notorious aggression... Oh, there's a fish. Oh, and it's off.
And territorial nature... Oh, he's coming after it again.
Are in full view.
He's gonna go after it again, look at this, He's gonna go after it again.
And it's taken it again.
Oh, off.
They do seem to be very aggressive.
Get too close to where they live, boom, They don't like that.
Then, in a deep, dark pool...
It's following, it's following, it's following, it's following.
Yes! Yes!
Fish on, fish on.
I'm on a remote river in australia.
And after weeks on the hunt, I've hooked into a predator I never thought I'd see.
Ah.
Gotcha!
Gotcha, gotcha.
There we go, murray cod.
And it's a chunky fish, amazing.
That just hammered that surface lure, Just came up to it and bang.
Aggression, these fish are all about aggression.
It's when they wanna feed but it's also When you get in their face, when you get too close
To where they live, they're just out and they're at you.
Judging by its size, this one has been stalking These waters for the best part of a decade.
A big one of these, I think easily might Have accounted for that story.
I could look at this all day but being a fish, I don't want it too long out of the water.
I've caught all sorts of things all around the world, This is one I never thought I would see
On the end of my line and here it is.
These things.
I think it's part of their character.
It's like, "let me go."
That whole king of the river and they know it.
"what are you doing, just leave me alone."
Boom, gone.
That is the murray cod for ya.
My journey started with a classic fisherman's tale, Of a terrifying encounter with a beast
In the dark waters of the australian outback.
From everything I've seen and learnt since then, I have no doubt it was a murray cod.
This is a powerful, and when they want to be, Very aggressive and territorial fish.
Look at this, he's gonna go after it again, He's gonna go after it again.
And when the swimmers came too close, It triggered an explosive response.
But this story is much more than that.
To see a fish come back from the brink In the way the murray cod has done
Is something really special.
It's still got some way to go, of course, But it shows what can happen if a fish
Is given a fighting chance, And that is the story worth sharing.