My name is jeremy wade.
It's gonna drop. It's gonna drop.
For years, i've been tracking down dangerous fish...
There it is. There it is. There it is.
In some of the remotest places on earth.
What a freshwater monster this thing is.
I've discovered that behind even the most outlandish tale,
There is often a real creature.
Now from a watery wilderness
Comes stories of a frightening and almost unbelievable beast.
You could see the coils of a giant serpent.
It had the intention to eat him.
But what is this sinister animal,
And is it really attacking people?
It's time to find the truth
About canada's mysterious lake monster.
— captions by vitac — www.Vitac.Com
Captions paid for by discovery communications
I've investigated legends of lake monsters
From all around the world.
Typically, the stories are tied to a single body of water,
Such as loch ness.
But i've recently come across an intriguing exception.
Across a huge expanse of canada,
There are reports of strange, snakelike beasts,
Sometimes as long as a bus.
Allegedly, these creatures have attacked and even killed people.
Most sightings are a little more than a fleeting glimpse,
But one thing that keeps cropping up
Is the sinuous, elongated shape of this mysterious animal.
I know that snakes can grow to a monstrous size.
It is huge. It is absolutely huge.
Big enough to swallow a man.
However, to get seriously big, reptiles require a warm climate.
I find it hard to believe that a snake the size of an anaconda
Could survive in canada's subarctic waters.
But if it's not a snake,
Then what on earth is this lurking menace?
My investigation begins in a place
Where there have been multiple sightings.
Eagle lake lies deep in canada's wilderness.
The best way to get there is by air.
Incredibly, the province of ontario
Holds more than a third of the world's freshwater.
Eagle lake alone covers an area
More than four times the size of manhattan.
These valleys were carved out by the glaciers,
Which once smothered this region.
When the glaciers retreated,
They left behind thousands of deep, icy lakes —
Plenty of space to hide a monster.
But the fragmented nature of this water world
Means i have to rule out an obvious suspect.
White sturgeon can grow to 20 feet long,
And they are known to swim up rivers.
However, there's a problem with the sturgeon theory.
These are landlocked lakes,
And sturgeon are migratory fish that are only found
In waterways connected with the pacific ocean.
If the stories i've heard are true,
Then these waters must be harboring some other large
And dangerous beast.
This place really does have quite a mysterious feel to it.
We tend to think of lakes as large, open expanses of water,
But this lake is anything but.
And we've now entered this creek
That is just winding away as far as i can see,
And this connects to another open area,
And it's very easy here to lose your sense of direction.
No, it's a bit of a maze, a bit of a labyrinth.
It's not the water but the rocks
That offer up my first faded bit of evidence.
Just come across these rock paintings on this cliff face.
This one here — clearly a person
Holding what looks like a spear in one hand.
There's what looks like a turtle here,
And i'm guessing these are pretty old.
These images could be thousands of years old.
And among them, there's one that catches my eye.
This one here, well, you know, it's open to interpretation,
But it doesn't take a lot of imagination
To see that is something snakelike.
Maybe that is the water serpent.
It may just be coincidence,
But i'm eager to track down the descendants
Of whoever drew this symbol.
Perhaps they'll be able to add some crucial details.
Eagle lake is the ancestral home
Of the migisi sahgaigan people,
An ancient tribe of indigenous canadians.
They still live here in a small settlement
On the northeastern shore.
I need to tread carefully, though.
I've been told they may be reluctant to speak to outsiders
About unusual sightings.
But tribal elder robert kelly is willing to talk.
That serpent... It does exist.
Do you have a name for it?
Our people say cacheekanabick.
Stories of this beast
Have been passed down through generations.
Elders, even my parents,
Have talked about the great serpent.
People talk about something surfacing from the water
And then go back down slowly.
Do people say anything else about the way that it looks?
Is there any — any details at all?
The ones that they have seen in the water
Were dark, almost black.
It sounds a bit like a supersized eel,
But anything that's as big as people are saying
Is going to need a good supply of food.
I'm curious to start finding out
What's actually living in this deep, cold lake.
Unlike a lot of the water that i fish,
You've got quite amazing clarity here,
So the chances are
Any predators here very much use the sense of sight.
And even down at 40,
50, 60 feet, that's gonna give off quite a flash
As you're gonna see it.
There might also be a little bit of a throb, as well,
When that moves,
But that's basically going to mimic a small prey fish.
Canada is new territory for me.
I'm not entirely sure what to expect.
What i'm doing, i'm not actually casting this lure off the boat.
I'm just lowering it down into the water.
It's just giving short pulls,
Which will make it flash and throb and then let it —
Let it flutter back down again.
I'm using a little bit of gadgetry to help me see
What's in the water.
There are solid lines above the water,
Which is some kind of fish.
But until i get it on the hook, i don't know what it is.
Yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
In canada's remote interior, i'm investigating reports
Of a mysterious
But surprisingly widespread lake monster.
The indigenous people
Describe it as big, black, and snakelike.
My first job is to find out
If there's enough prey in this water
To feed something huge.
Yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
Yes.
Ah.
Well, this is a lake trout, a predator in its own right.
It took a spoon that was mimicking a small fish.
So that's a big predator's mouth full of teeth.
But it's the lake trout's exceptionally high fat content
That interests me.
It wouldn't take many of these smaller predators
To sustain a monster.
And as i continue to fish... The lake trout keep biting.
Well, i think the conclusion is pretty clear.
The water down here
Is just teeming with fatty, nutritious fish —
A perfect bite-Size morsel
For any larger predator that might be down there.
Clearly, there's lots of space here for a monster
And plenty to eat.
But to start working towards a positive i.D.,
I want to meet one of the few people on this lake
Who claim to have actually seen the beast with their own eyes.
When i eventually track him down, though,
Leonard sky seems wary of saying too much.
Like, i mean, when we see something,
We don't really go and broadcast it all over the place.
You would be deemed a lunatic if you do.
It takes awhile for leonard to come 'round
And tell me about his strange encounter.
We were going across the lake in a boat with my client.
One of the fisherman then spots something odd in the water.
I looked at it.
I said, "that can't be."
It was big,
Like an overturned boat, about 20 feet or so.
So we went in to investigate it, and then the thing sank.
And then, we turned on our sonar,
And there was nothing there.
It just disappeared.
Leonard has spent decades on this lake,
But what he saw that day
Was unlike anything he'd seen before.
To him, it was cacheekanabick, the eagle lake serpent.
To me, it's totally perplexing.
So, whereabouts on the lake did you see this?
Right in front,
Way over there where the sun is shining on the far horizon,
Called spirit rock.
For the magisi sahgaigan people,
Spirit rock is a sacred place.
People are not supposed to point towards the rock.
Is that because people respect the place?
Out of respect for the spirit that's there.
It's said the spirit
Could be placated with an offering of tobacco.
But even so,
Anyone who goes near the rock does so at their own risk.
If it really is the lair of a large, unknown creature,
Then i intend to find out.
Predators will often stake out the deep water
Alongside a drop off,
So islands can be ideal ambush spots.
I'm wondering if leonard's monster vanished into a cave,
But this isn't something i can find out with a rod and line.
I'm reckoning my best chance of seeing what's down there
Is actually getting in the water myself,
But i have to say i'm more than a little daunted
Because the visibility is actually not that great.
And if there is something down there,
I'm not gonna see it until i'm pretty much on top of it.
In winter, this lake is entombed in a foot of ice,
But even in the summer,
Getting in the water is a bone-Chilling experience.
Below the surface, the bottom falls away on all sides,
But there are no obvious cracks or hiding places.
And the entire area seems eerily devoid of life.
There's nothing here.
I've not seen any fish, and that's strange.
I've drawn a blank at spirit rock,
But i'm not giving up.
Back on land, i hear about someone
Who was recently attacked on this very lake
Right next to the shore.
Something grabbed him and tried to pull him under.
Could this be the work of the mysterious lake serpent?
On canada's eagle lake,
I'm trying to identify an elusive, snakelike beast
That people here call cacheekanabick.
Sightings of a similar 20-Foot animal have been reported
From across this region,
But nothing i know of fits the description.
Now i've heard of a recent attack on a human.
If the culprit is the shadowy lake monster,
Then bite marks on the victim
Could be the key to solving this mystery.
Eager to get more details,
I track down a man named gord bastable,
A witness to the attack.
What exactly was is that happened in the water down here?
Well, we had a bunch of kids down in camp here.
They were out in the water, down on the beach.
They were just horsing around like kids do.
One of them is 11-Year-Old billy balinski.
He's standing in very shallow water when without warning,
Something slams into his leg.
Something grabbed him and tried to pull him under.
Fortunately, he was in shallow water,
So he could pull himself off and get to shore.
But really, if it had been in deep water,
It could have been a whole different story.
The boy isn't here now,
But gord has a photograph of billy's wound
Taken just minutes after he was mauled.
It looks like someone's taken a pointed knife
And just gone round and done a semicircle.
The crescent-Shaped bite... Is rather like that of a shark,
And bull sharks are known to live in freshwater.
But no bull shark could ever reach this landlocked lake,
Let alone survive its icy temperatures.
Has anything like this ever happened before?
Never. Never.
I've been on the lake here for 35 years,
And this was a first.
There was a lot of commotion,
Which is very odd to attract any kind of fish.
So, what do you think did this?
Well, there's only one fish
That has the confidence to actually pull that off,
And that would be a muskie.
A muskie?
There were several muskies hanging around in the creek area
And the beach area that week.
The muskie, or muskellunge, is a truly formidable beast.
Fast and extremely fierce, this supersized pike
Sits at the very top of this aquatic food chain.
Muskies are known to reach a hefty 70 pounds
And can target a wide range of prey.
Fish, muskrats, and even ducks are all fair game.
But in over 30 years
Of investigating freshwater attacks,
I've never heard of a muskie sinking its teeth into a human
Until now.
Can it really be true?
I need more evidence.
A bit of digging soon turns up another, even bloodier account
Of a muskie attack.
There's a couple out canoeing.
The girlfriend was paddling,
And the guy had his feet
Dangling over front of the canoe.
All of a sudden... Something come up and grabbed his foot.
Aah!
It takes 60 stitches to close the wound.
So muskies can be far more aggressive than i realized.
But does this large, predatory fish match the descriptions
Of the lake monster?
There are certainly some intriguing parallels.
For a start, the muskie
Has an elongated and somewhat reptilian appearance.
More tellingly, perhaps, its range
Correlates very closely with lake serpent sightings.
And finally, the muskie has been observed
Lifting its head above the water
In a very unfishlike way,
A behavior that's also been reported
For the supposed lake serpent.
Things are starting to come together,
But the only thing that really doesn't compute is size.
Muskies don't grow as big
As these creatures that people say they are seeing.
From talking to locals,
I learn of a huge jaw bone supposedly from
One of the biggest muskies ever found.
It's kept in a small fishing lodge
Close to where it was discovered.
I'm hoping there's enough of it left to deduce the full size
Of the animal it came from.
This is the lower jaw
Of one of the biggest muskies ever recorded.
It was found washed up at the water's edge near here.
The first thing that strikes me is just the size
And the sharpness of those teeth.
Each stiletto tooth is more than an inch long,
And the jaw's shape perfectly matches
The semicircle of puncture wounds on billy balinski's leg.
This muskie had a mouth like a bear trap,
But how long was it nose to tail?
Based on the size of this jaw, the whole muskie
Would've measured something like five, maybe six foot long,
A very big muskie.
But it still falls considerably short of the size
Of this lake monster.
But having said that,
There's no other candidates in the frame at the moment.
Maybe i'm missing something.
To keep my investigation moving,
I need to see this fish in the flesh.
So i'm heading to a stretch of river
Where huge muskies are said to lurk.
The exact spot is a closely guarded secret.
The only name i've been given for the place where i'm going
Is location "x."
It's actually on a native american reservation,
And as a rule, outsiders just aren't allowed there.
And i'm only being allowed to go there on strict condition
That i don't say where it is.
This is as far as i can go in this.
From here on in, my guide is taking me off the grid.
At our secret riverside camp,
I start to prepare for the challenge ahead.
Muskies are notoriously hard to catch.
Not for nothing are they known to anglers
As the fish of 10,000 casts.
Some have spent an entire lifetime
In pursuit of a single monstrous specimen.
My time, however, is more limited,
So the gear i choose is going to be critical.
So how do i tempt a muskie?
Well, what i know about them
Is that they hunt very much using their sense of sight,
But they've also got this lateral line organ
That picks up vibrations in the water.
So i'm thinking lures that have got
A lot of flash and movement to them, but also
Lures that are gonna make a lot of noise in the water.
With a bit of luck, i'll get to a point where i put something
In front of them that triggers their predatory response.
To have any chance of success,
I also need to think like a muskie.
The muskie are going to be tight to the bank,
Out of the main flow.
It's where the small fish are gonna be.
It's where they are gonna conserve energy,
So cast as close to the bank as i can get them.
If anything is gonna bring a fish,
That's gonna be the tactic.
Most fish would be scared off
By the noise of lures like this,
But muskies are fearless predators
That are just as likely
To investigate a disturbance in the water.
After more than five hours, though,
I'm still waiting for a strike.
This is absolutely perfect time of day
For predators to be on the prowl,
But i've not felt anything on the line.
But i have felt every cast, the throbbing of the lures,
And i can be pretty certain
That the fish down there have felt that, as well.
By the time i turn in for the night,
I must've racked up close to 500 casts.
I'm learning the hard way
That the muskie is an extremely wily opponent.
And now there's another problem.
During the night,
A freak storm funnels straight through my camp.
And in the morning, my worst fears are confirmed.
The banks here are formed of soft, brown clay,
And the runoff has turned the river into a muddy soup.
The water level has come up.
It's still coming up, and the visibility
Has gone down from about two feet to about two inches.
And for a predator that feeds largely using vision,
That's not a good sign.
If a muskie can't see my lure, it's unlikely to bite.
This is an intensely frustrating situation.
One of the components of my limited access here
Is limited time.
I've got three days.
The thing is that's at least how long it's gonna take
For this water to clear.
So really, you know,
I have no other alternative but to pack everything up
And try and find somewhere else.
Big muskies are few and far between,
So this is a serious blow to my investigation.
But my guide tells me there is one other place i can try.
Rowan lake is as deep as it is remote.
Maybe this is where i'll find a giant and with it,
Perhaps the missing clue i'm looking for —
A way to make sense
Of all those unexplained sightings.
This place is a real wilderness.
It's probably true to say that nobody has ever set foot
On a lot of this land.
Unaffected by the recent storm,
The lake's crystal-Clear waters look ideal for a muskie hunt.
This is beautifully clear water.
I can see the bait very distinctly,
But i'm not looking at the lure so much as the space behind it,
About three, four, five foot behind
To see if there's something following it.
Though ferocious, muskies are also cunning.
Before hitting a lure,
They'll often stalk it, sometimes right up to the boat.
So every time the lure comes in,
I keep it circling in the water for several moments
Before lifting it out.
Most times, there's just nothing there,
But once in a while,
You lock onto the shape of a fish.
I'm now well past 1,000 casts
And still waiting for a lucky break.
Ah, yes!
That's a fish. That's a fish.
Yes, yes, yes.
The answer right after this.
I asked, "what does the name muskellunge actually mean?"
On a remote canadian lake,
I'm on the hunt for a giant muskie.
This elusive fish appears to match eyewitness reports
Of a sinister lake serpent in every detail but one.
Lengthwise, it falls far short of the 20-Foot beast
That people say they've seen here.
Ah, yes!
But maybe the fish on my line
Will provide the missing piece of this puzzle.
It's a toothy predator, but not yet the one i'm after.
This could be a good sign. The pike are feeding.
But to be honest, the fish that i'm after
Could inhale this in one mouthful.
The northern pike is a fast, aggressive predator.
But for a big muskie,
This would be little more than a bite-Size snack.
As the hours pass, i try every conceivable combination
Of lure and location.
I think there's a pike on.
I'm having absolutely no problem attracting pike.
Another pike.
But its bigger, uglier brother is nowhere to be seen.
Another pike.
It's a pike again.
I catch pike after pike.
It's a struggle to stay focused.
And then, to compound my frustration...
Oh!
I'm impaled by my own hook.
I'll just take it. Yeah, sort of like this.
Ah, pike's off.
I hooked myself, the best hook up all day, myself.
I got off lightly.
The good thing was that that pike actually came off.
It wasn't attached to my arm and flapping around.
But if that had been a muskie
And if that had stayed attached rather than unhooking itself,
I could be in a lot more trouble.
Once again and still empty-Handed,
My fishing is brought to an abrupt end by bad weather.
I think we saw a bit of lightning just then,
So, um, not good to be out
On a big expanse of water waving a carbon-Fiber pole.
With this new setback,
I can't help feeling that the gods are against me.
Next morning though, my guide, don persh,
Tells me a firsthand fisherman's tale
That could be highly significant.
It was a bright, sunny day,
And here was this big, brown line coming in.
I thought i was looking at 10 foot of muskie
Coming after my bait.
And it was two 50-Inchers nose to tail coming at the same time.
They were in a straight line coming like a train.
So what it was was two muskies
Following each other, one behind the other.
So total length, something like 10 foot.
Yes, sir.
Could this be the missing piece of the puzzle?
It's very interesting, what don said
About the behavior of these fish,
And i'm particularly intrigued by that story
Of one muskie following close behind another
Because although one muskie
Is not really big enough to be the lake monster,
Perhaps what people are seeing
Is more than one individual swimming in formation,
Creating the illusion of a much bigger creature.
During spawning,
Muskies are known to swim very close to one another,
Sometimes with their backs and tails breaking the surface.
What if the 20-Foot canadian lake monster was not one muskie
But a small group of them swimming in loose formation?
The muskie is the best candidate
I can find for the sightings
Of a giant serpent in these waters.
It has the attitude, the shape, the hardware,
And the unusual head-Lifting behavior to match.
And this new information ticks the final box — size.
My investigation might be complete,
But my mission is far from over.
I can't feel entirely satisfied
Until i've actually seen a muskie in the flesh,
And this is now becoming an obsession.
For five more days, i fish around the clock.
But now not even the pike are biting.
No response here. Time to move on again.
My muskie hunt is now really taking its toll.
My hands and arms are sore, my eyes are aching,
And most disturbing of all,
I could feel my confidence ebbing away.
I knew that it was going to be hard,
So i was prepared for lots of effort for no reward
Or even sort of glimpse of a fish.
But apparently this is —
Even for muskie fishing, this is — this is slow.
This is difficult.
By now, i must be close to 10,000 casts.
What i really need now, besides catching a fish,
Is a good night's sleep, but i find that i close my eyes
And i'm expecting the shape of a fish to slide into view
At any moment.
I'm just sitting here all twitchy, tired,
But at the same time, strangely awake.
If i'm going to win this battle,
I've got no choice
But to get back out there and keep working the water.
Do good things come to those who wait?
Or am i fated to fail?
Finally, after a week with little sleep...
Follow, follow, follow, follow.
There's something big stalking my lure.
Muskie.
Whoo, there we go.
It's the object of my obsession,
And i can almost touch it.
It's still there. It's still there.
But will it strike?
In the canadian wilderness, i'm going all out for a muskie.
Follow, follow, follow, follow, follow, follow, follow.
And i finally got one in my sights.
Muskie.
Whoo, there we go.
Big fish, jeremy.
It's tantalizingly close.
It's still there. It's still there.
Then, it simply vanishes.
For sake.
I've never experienced anything like this before.
I feel i'm being taunted.
The frustration level is getting pretty well off the scale.
To see a fish that far behind your lure
And then it doesn't take it is just —
And you can't do anything about it.
All you can do is try again and again.
How many times?
The days are running together.
More muskies follow my lures,
But the strike i'm so desperate for never comes.
In just a few more weeks, this lake will freeze,
And it'll be game over.
I'm at my wit's end.
Perhaps it's time to invoke the spirits.
Sometimes, when anglers are struggling to find any kind
Of logical reason why things might improve,
We fall back on superstition, in which case
This here is absolutely right on cue.
I take this as a sign.
But of what?
Something tells me i should go back to spirit rock.
It's not a known muskie spot,
But i've got something else on my mind.
I feel i've lost belief in myself as an angler,
And i need to get it back.
Because it is such a sacred place,
I've brought tobacco with me to make an offering to the spirit.
I need to clear my head and regain my confidence.
I just need to catch a fish.
Anything will do.
So i'm going right back to basics —
A thin line, a lightweight rod, and a small hook.
The thing about muskie fishing is that it utterly consumes you,
And at the same time,
You just get these intense levels of frustration.
And i've got to the point where i'm actually
Fishing somewhat mechanically.
I'm casting. I'm casting. And i've lost the expectation.
I've lost that belief that i'm gonna get something.
I just want to feel anything.
I don't care what it is, something alive
On the end of my line to get that belief back.
Even a small lake trout would do the trick.
I'm keeping the bait within a couple of feet of the bottom.
So i'm just giving it a little bit of life
By just raising it a couple of foot or so off the bottom
And letting it sink down again.
Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes, yes, yes. That's a fish.
At last, i'm back in the game.
I think it's coming up.
I think it is coming up. Yeah, i can feel it.
I can feel it. It's coming.
But my rod is buckling under the strain.
This is no lake trout.
I've hooked a huge muskie with totally the wrong gear.
Frustrated by my failure to catch a giant muskie,
I've called on the spirit of eagle lake.
Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes, yes, yes. That's a fish.
And just when i was least expecting it,
My prayers have been answered.
But i've got a problem.
After endless days of failure,
I've switched to lightweight gear,
Just to catch something small and get back my confidence.
I'm worried about the line. This is incredibly weak line.
The beast that's grabbed my bait, however, is no minnow.
Ah!
It's a massive muskie on six-Pound line.
We're never gonna get this in.
I'm just gonna let that drag go very loose.
My line just has to touch a rock, a tooth,
Or even the gill plate, and it'll snap.
I got to try and get it near the boat.
Oh, it's going down again.
There's the fish. Oh, she's huge.
Keep her head down. That's a huge fish.
All my hopes are hanging on the slenderest of threads.
This is the monster from spirit rock.
It's a big muskie.
Six-Pound line,
Tiny bait, sacred site, made the tobacco offering.
That has to rank as one of the most extraordinary catches
Of my life.
We've got... A muskie.
I must've made over 13,000 casts,
And it's only when i stopped trying to catch one
That a muskie finally bites.
That's the hook.
That's the line.
Look at that line, just like cotton.
And that was just in the corner of the mouth.
That line — well, that's what happens to that line in teeth.
That is me, my teeth.
It's four feet long and then some —
By any standards, a very big muskie.
Here we go.
Fish of 10,000 casts — big, old muskie.
Just looking at it, you can tell it's a supreme predator.
It just has this attitude problem.
It's the absolute top predator of these waters,
And it knows it.
This fish is a very impressive beast.
Back in the water.
But just imagine three or four of them at the surface
Swimming in a tight-Knit group.
You could be forgiven
For thinking you'd seen the lake serpent.
I'm actually still trying to take that in.
I mean, who would have thought
That things would have turned out this way
To catch a fish like that in circumstances like this?
They did say that this rock is the home of a monster.
Turns out they were absolutely right.
Well, let's get right to it.
I'm not sure i've ever seen jeremy give up.
But it sure looked like he was ready
To throw in the towel before he caught that muskie.
Jeremy, what was going through your mind?
I had actually given up.
I wasn't fishing for muskie there at all.
Fishing — there always is this element of luck,
This random element.
And sometimes, nothing is going your way.
And that was what had happened there.
I had just been fishing, fishing, fishing.
Nothing at all.
And then sometimes things can just turn around
So outrageously that you just don't believe it was possible.
And i still have trouble actually registering
That i caught that fish.
Such a tiny line, tiny hook.
Shouldn't have happened. Amazing.
A fishing miracle, wasn't it? It was.
Well, right now, jeremy wade is taking a tiny break
From his worldwide fishing adventures
To join us for a lightning round aftershow.
I'm executive producer lisa lucas.
And tonight, jeremy is answering questions from you
About "river monsters" and about his life on and off camera.
Plus, we're showcasing photos of your monster catches
At the bottom of the screen,
So send us your best fishing shot
Using the hashtag #reelmonster —
That's r-E-E-L monster —
On twitter, facebook, and instagram right now
Okay, jeremy.
Let's take a look at your first viewer question.
Ooh, and i hope i don't mess this up.
Strahinja g. Asks...
Where would you like to be fishing?
At this point, going into season 7,
We have this incredible geographical spread.
One place we've never been to is china.
I would love to go to china.
There is an amazing fish that lives there.
It's called — i believe it's the chinese seerfish.
Now, the trouble is we have to go somewhere
Where there is a realistic chance
Of getting something in a 2½-Week period.
Now, these river monsters,
They're getting harder and harder to find
Everywhere in the world.
And in china, unfortunately,
I do not think there's a realistic chance
Of catching anything in the time that we have available.
So, for the time being, china is off the map.
Not even jeremy wade can catch it.
Hard to believe.
Let's get a question. Joshua k. Asks...
I think what he's thinking about there is a latin name,
A scientific name.
It would depend on what the was, what it looked like,
But what i would really like to do —
There is — i'd try to get a scientific name
That is longer than the current longest scientific name,
Which i believe is diphyllobothrium latum.
It's a type of parasitic worm.
I would like to name something —
A little worm with a big name.
Exactly. Yeah. Exactly.
I'd go away and i'd think about it for a few weeks
And come up with something even longer than that.
Even longer? Okay.
Well, right now, you're probably curious
About the number in the corner of the screen.
We're counting down to the premier
Of "100 miles from nowhere."
About three guys, who much like jeremy,
Are extraordinary adventurers.
In fact, since no camera man dares to follow them,
They shoot everything themselves,
But that's coming up in a few minutes.
And right now, we've got jeremy in the hot seat,
So let's get to another question.
Ryan m. Asks...
Well, there's an offer.
And i think "fish to chest" is the arapaima.
So, do you need a personal assistant?
Making good tea is a good start.
As a rule, i don't need an assistant,
But in that one instance of flying arapaima being around,
Definitely someone to get in the way at that point.
Yeah. Take a flying fish for you.
Well, here's one from gabriela.
She's asking...
I think she wants to know what's the weirdest food you've eaten.
I've eaten bugs, insects, on a few occasions,
Fried locusts fried in their own fat,
Palm grubs in the amazon.
Their little sort of maggoty things.
Did it taste like chicken?
No, they don't.
They taste of coconut oil
Because they live in a small coconut thing.
They're actually very tasty.
And i've eaten a larger version of those,
Which are about the size of your thumb
In guyana.
And that was fairly horrible.
That, um —
It's a sort of maggoty texture.
I mean, very proteinaceous,
But a slight sort of smell of excrement about it,
Which i didn't like. Oh, god.
So, you like protein, but not when it tastes like maggot.
Yeah, just hold your nose for that one.
Okay. Okay. Yeah.
Well, most people don't realize
That the vast majority of what's filmed
For "river monsters" never gets seen.
Check out an epic struggle
That didn't make it into tonight episode.
This is sophie the dog.
She lives on a lake in ontario.
Looks like you can catch fish, jeremy,
But you can't catch a dog. What's happening?
She's got my shoe, i think,
And we can't go out on the lake until i get my shoe back.
Aww, sophie.
Okay, we've got another question.
@acary99 is asking...
Interesting. People are thinking —
The program is an hour long.
That normally takes us about 2½, 3 weeks to film.
Of that, generally just four or five days of fishing.
It might be 9 or 10 sometimes.
And we have to get the fish.
If we don't get the fish, we haven't got the program.
The great thing about having limited time
Is it concentrates your mind, and so i'm really focused.
I'm fishing effectively.
I'm not just throwing a line out at random and sitting back.
There is pressure, and that is a good thing.
Sometimes we run over.
Occasionally we have to go back.
Normally we do it in the time.
Keeley f. Is asking...
Why would i get frustrated?
No, if you're making television,
You want people to watch what you're making.
If they don't watch it,
I've got to go and find another job,
Which is probably less interesting, so...
I'm sure it would be.
I'm delighted that people watch.
Why would i be otherwise?
Well, speaking of fans,
I think we have a picture of you preparing to go shopping.
Uh! Yeah. There you are. There you are.
That's you under there, isn't it?
That is actually me.
So, you wear that to go shopping?
I did on that occasion.
This was filming last year in the u.S.
And we actually went into a supermarket to buy batteries.
And somebody spotted me.
And i ended up —
I couldn't get away for about 20 minutes or half an hour,
Taking pictures, which was great,
But we're in the middle of a busy day.
So the bought that wig and that fake beard and said,
"next we go shopping, you're wearing that."
Right, so batteries take five minutes instead of 20.
Mm-Hmm. I get it.
Jeremy does get recognized, especially in the u.S.,
But i know in some places,
People have no idea who jeremy is
Or that a film production is even going on.
And here's evidence of that.
Tell me, jeremy, what is the story
Behind this horrible looking thing?
This is not the real thing, i have to say.
This is a prop.
This is from this reconstruction here.
There was a story of somebody getting swallowed
By a giant catfish,
And we filmed this in a fish market in guyana,
And we told the people, obviously, who are our actors,
And the people in the immediate surroundings,
But some people who were slightly further away —
There was a woman who, understandably, freaked out.
She thought that was real, got on the phone,
The next thing we knew, we had a local news crew.
They got there before the police.
And we had to explain to everybody
This is not a real event.
And they went away slightly disappointed.
There is a p.S. To this story.
We were leaving the country.
We were going out through the airport,
And having checked in our bags, we have like 30, 40 bags,
Instead of them going onto the conveyor,
We then had to take them
And get them x-Rayed before they went out,
And the guy on the x-Ray machine
Suddenly throws his arms in the air, calls our cameraman,
And says, "have you got a body in this bag?"
And we had to explain, "it's a plastic one.
Don't worry about it."
They didn't check it out. It could have been a real one.
Anyway, it went through —
Bodies in luggage. Yeah.
Well, we're getting lots of great questions
And reel monster photos.
Thank you to everyone who's posting.
Next, nancy m. Is asking...
With a little wink. When did you become so hot?
On the programs, my co-Stars are fish,
Which are pretty hideous on the whole.
So, by default, you're the hottest one on the screen.
And anybody's gonna look good next to, say, a goonch catfish.
So, if you're a man and you want to look good,
An inflatable goonch catfish —
Something ugly next to you. Exactly.
I get it. I get it.
I believe we did some sort of a bit
Of a promo shoot a while ago,
And the thing is, if you're doing this kind of thing here —
No, that's pretty — yeah, that's kind of gq jeremy.
You know, that is not a snap.
Somebody's taken all day to shoot that.
Somebody sits down on a photoshop machine,
Or whatever they call them, for a whole day.
Well, stuart h. Has a question.
Wow. I promise we don't know stuart,
And i was going to bring this up
Because i have something cool to show you,
But stuart obviously beat me to it.
Jeremy is definitely going after some prehistoric beasts
In monster week at the end of may.
And here we go.
Yeah, these are some of the highlights from that.
You'll have to watch that show
To see the beasts that we featured.
Impressive.
Some horrendous stuff.
Look at the size of that one.
That is amazing.
We've actually got one of those beasts right here, don't we?
Yeah, this is — i got into some fossil hunting,
And this is a 3d print of the skull
Of a mega piranha.
And the whole creature would have come out about here.
Careful. Don't get your hands anywhere near the mouth.
Oh, yes.
Believe it or not, this is one of
The less terrifying creatures that we feature.
This is the goldfish of the collection.
Exactly.
So, to see the other ones — a bit of a spoiler —
This program is coming up,
But you're gonna have to wait to see
What this one is.
See what the rest of it is. I can't wait.
Well, it's hard to top every season of "river monsters,"
But i can tell you, this season, jeremy does
Some things he's never dared to do before.
And you're not gonna want to miss it.
Jeremy, thanks so much for joining us.
Been a lot of fun. Thanks.