River Monsters (2009–2017): Season 3, Episode 11 - Special: The Lost Reels - Himalayan Giant - full transcript
Narrator: Jeremy Wade,
biologist and extreme angler.
His life's passion is
investigating the myths
and legends that lurk in our
rivers, lakes, and nightmares.
But long before he was the host
of "River Monsters,"
Jeremy searched
for freshwater monsters
well off the public radar.
In 2005, a small film crew
was sent to document
his first journey to India.
This long-lost footage,
never before seen
by U.S. audiences,
captures Wade's pursuit
of the Himalayas' most horrific
river dweller...
the goonch catfish.
Cameras follow Jeremy
as he tracks down eyewitnesses
of the murderous fish
and as he unravels
the gruesome details
of how the goonch developed
a taste for human flesh.
And in the end, a disturbing
piece of evidence
helps Jeremy land a man-eating
goonch for the first time.
In 2005, adventure
fisherman Jeremy Wade
traveled to the Indian Himalayas
to pit his skills against the
mountains and their monsters.
I was sitting in England,
thinking perhaps that
my fishing days were over
when somebody gave me a copy
of a classic Victorian book
about fishing in India,
and from that moment on, I was
scarcely able to sleep, even.
I was just waking up thinking,
"I've just got to get myself
into the Himalayas
and experience
some of the things
that those old writers
experienced."
In addition
to the mountain species,
there's a whole range of weird
and wonderful fish in India,
and a perfect place
to go for that
is where the mountains
meet the plains.
And so I'm on my way now
to check out these creatures.
Narrator: Jeremy's first stop
is Tumaria Reservoir,
a large lake fed by the rivers
of the Himalayas.
Each summer,
when the waters are low,
local fishermen descend upon
the lake in large numbers.
Jeremy has come to
the daily fish weigh-in
to gather local intelligence
and to see what strange fish
inhabit India's waters.
Everything else, rohu.
Rohu, rohu, rohu, rohu.
This is a bit of a lump.
This is a big fish... a cutler.
A weird carp
with an upturned mouth.
Feeds on algae,
but still manages
to pack on the weight.
Put a bend in the rod,
if ever you could get it there.
So, quite carp-y.
Very solid. Very solid body.
Cylindrical, and nice salmon
pink-y color, almost,
on these scales down the middle
of the body.
So, that's a lurch and a couple
of different ones going on top.
These are the
They're both
is the...
Otherwise known as shovelhead...
Flat, broad head.
So, this is a lurchy
or mully catfish.
Similar in many ways
to the European catfish...
Tail and long anal fin,
but get to the head,
and the picture changes.
You got a very toothy,
fearsome head on that.
Certainly wouldn't want to be
a fish disappearing down there.
What a hideous thing to be
your last sight on Earth.
As an angler,
there's four fish here
that have really fired
my imagination.
There's two catfish,
the mully, or freshwater shark.
There's the deeper-bodied
shovelhead catfish,
and then there's two species
of carp...
There's the cylindrical rohu
and the deeper-bodied cutler.
Now, if I could catch any one
of those on a rod and line
against this competition,
I'd feel I had a result there.
Huge fish being removed
from the lake before my eyes.
Local throw-net fisherman
staggering under the weight
of some huge catch.
Great to see in one respect,
but in the other respect,
has me thinking,
"What is left in here for me?"
Narrator: The first thing
Jeremy needs
is some local intelligence.
Vinay is a well-known
local fisherman
who agreed to help Jeremy
land his first Himalayan fish.
With Vinay's guidance,
he's ready to try his luck
on the lake.
But his first catches
aren't exactly the monsters
he had expected.
Wade:
That's a pretty little thing.
Vinay:
It's a tengara catfish.
Yeah, very nice.
It's got a poisonous pectoral.
Careful.
There's spines there.
This is a tengara catfish,
a little species of catfish,
and it croaks when it's caught.
Narrator:
Jeremy handles the tengara
catfish with caution,
being careful to avoid
its poisonous pectoral fin.
It's another species.
This is a type
of snakehead fish.
It's called a snakehead
because, well, just...
That's what it instantly
reminds one of.
It looks like the head
of a snake
grafted onto the tail of a fish.
The fish in Tumaria Reservoir
may be exotic,
but they're hardly the monsters
that Jeremy traveled all the way
to India to catch.
Oh.
This feels like something
other than just a tiddler.
Wait a minute.
It's going in the weed.
It's floundering a little bit.
This is one that isn't
a tiddler, tiddler.
Putting a bit more of a bend
in the rod.
And coming towards the weeds.
Just see if I can turn him
from there.
And coming in close.
And slightly nervous,
because I've just been catching
these tiny, little catfish
until now.
Reverse back onto the shallows.
I think he's just about ready
to come in,
but I better be
on the safe side.
Just gonna whip it in here.
And it just... just, just,
just, just, just.
All right.
And there we go.
I think that's one
of these rohu,
one of these carp species.
Okay, not a monster,
but he's more
than the little tiddlers
I've been getting until now.
So, very pleasing to get
my hands on one of these.
It was one of the species
I wanted to see close-up,
in the flesh, alive,
so that's nice.
Very pretty, bronze-y,
colorful fish.
Narrator:
Jeremy is disappointed
by the size
of his first day's catch,
so he's hoping local fishermen
will share some
of their techniques.
Nets, not rods, are the
preferred method around here.
I think anglers
always have this idea
that netting is
a very easy activity.
I tried it
a couple times before,
but this operation here,
it's a bit like
a military operation,
and the things
I've been catching
would actually just go through
one of these holes.
So that's an indication
of the size of fish
we're hoping to catch...
Stuff that won't go
through those holes.
Oh, they're about to start.
So...
Narrator: The local fishermen
use a combination
of noise and terror tactics
to catch fish.
They drop their net
in a giant circle,
then drive the fish inside.
We've now got the bottom
of the net here,
top of the net here,
and here's the float line,
there's the lead line.
It's being gathered in,
and this is where the fish
will have collected.
Let's have a look.
Let's have a look.
Anything?
One tiny catfish.
One tiny catfish.
Oh! We got a few.
There's a few.
Ooh!
Very impressive operation.
Just military precision,
and using the whole idea
of scaring the fish,
scaring the fish into the nets.
And seeing this operation
close up,
I'm not surprised at all
that I'm not catching anything.
Narrator:
Jeremy came to catch a giant,
and, so far, the giant
is nowhere in sight.
The situation at the lake here
is a bit desperate,
to be honest.
The presence of all
these fishermen
was completely unexpected.
I was expecting just
a take-over operation,
but the fish are actually
disappearing out of the water
before my eyes,
and the ones that are left
are obviously running scared...
Have to get them to take a bait,
so I'm a bit stuck for ideas.
It's a real, you know,
it's gonna be hard work...
Hard work, indeed.
Narrator: Jeremy realizes the
Himalayan giant he's read about
may nearly be gone.
Wade: Although the odds
are against me here,
all I can do, really,
is keep trying.
This place is about
to be cleaned out,
so can I tempt one to the hook
before they are all scooped up
by the net?
Narrator: The next morning,
Jeremy gets an early start
at Tumaria Lake.
Competing with over 300 Bihari
and Bengali fishermen,
it's a race against time
if he's going to stand any
chance of hooking a big fish.
He's got to get on the water
before the other
fishermen arrive.
I think if I get just a fish
of any description
out of this water it's going
to be an achievement.
Against the competition and the
disturbance that there is here,
just that would do me...
Just a fish.
Hold on.
There's something on here.
Have you got the net?
Bring the net.
Something's taken a live bait
out here.
Wait a minute.
Push out a little bit.
Push out, push out.
Push out, push out,
push out, push out.
Lift, lift, lift,
lift, lift, lift.
That's it.
Good, good.
Oops, my foot's getting stuck.
Foot's getting stuck.
Let's take it
up to the grass here.
So this is a lurchy or mully,
one of these freshwater sharks,
as they call them.
The Wallago attu,
scientific name...
Very ugly name
for quite an ugly fish,
and known in English, sometimes,
as a freshwater shark.
Impressive sight, looking down
the mouth of this thing.
I've got be very careful
where I put my thumb.
Lots of needle-like teeth.
Oops, there's the hook.
Let's get it out of the way.
Big eyes close to the mouth,
so, looking at the design,
those teeth and those eyes,
you would guess,
even though he's a catfish,
he's a bit of a predatory one.
Almost like a snake.
Very slipper customer.
Slippery customer.
Now, of all the fish, possibly,
that I wanted to get here,
to see, this is the one,
and he's quite a nice specimen.
The freshwater shark,
Wallago attu,
toothy catfish, one of
the great tropical weirdos.
Oh, that's great.
After all that slogging
against all that competition,
it really feels good to get
my hands on one of those.
Narrator: Jeremy decides
to leave Tumaria Lake
and travel deep into the heart
of the Himalayan mountains
in search of untouched
fishing grounds
where he might stand a better
chance of catching a monster.
I don't think
the Victorian gents
would have quite been traveling
like this.
Okay, a vehicle is traveling
in style in some sense,
but I'm on the roof.
I think they'd have been
downstairs.
Narrator: After a 16-hour
bone-shaking jeep ride
up the Himalayan mountains,
Jeremy arrives at what he hopes
will be the monster's abode.
The obvious thing,
looking at this water here,
and also because it's nice
and instant,
is to give it a go on some
artificial lures.
Obviously, I don't know exactly
what's going to work here,
so I've got not quite everything
including the kitchen sink,
but a fair old selection
of stuff.
Now, the old books tended to
talk about natural coloration
on these lures,
so I'll definitely
give that a go,
but I've also brought some more
modern, whacky, lurid designs
as well,
but then just also make it up
as I go along.
Fish, fish, a fish.
It's the first fish.
It's the first fish
from this river.
Just great to have something
hang on the lure,
because I've just been fishing
for about an hour, I suppose,
with nothing doing at all.
Small fish, but very welcome,
if anything,
just to get the reflexes going,
because it's so easy
after thrashing the water
with nothing happening
just to get into
that sort of torpor, almost,
where you think
nothing's gonna happen.
And if it happens
and a big fish takes,
then you're just
gonna mess it up.
And it's a fish.
Nice to catch a fish.
A good confidence boost, anyway,
to get even a little one.
First fish... significant fish,
whatever,
even though it's a small
first fish from this spot.
It's very nice.
Narrator: Having landed a small
golden Himalayan mahseer,
Jeremy and Vinay go in search
of local villagers,
who, they hope,
will have information
on where the monsters
might be hiding.
Stories of a horrifying creature
begin to emerge.
Wade: I keep hearing
about this monstrous catfish
that lives in these waters,
a thing called a goonch,
and it sounds
a complete abomination.
All I'm getting about
this goonch is rumors.
Very few people have seen one,
very few people know very much
about it at all,
and my curiosity level
is just building.
I very much want to come
face-to-face
with one of these creatures.
Narrator: Jeremy is now consumed
with stories
of the aquatic equivalent
of the yeti.
Wade: Hear a lot of tall tales
to do with fish.
They're normally second,
third, fourth, fifth...
Who knows how many? hand.
Man Singh here is an eyewitness
to quite a horrifying story,
and we are approaching the spot,
apparently,
where this event happened.
He was out at the shop.
His little girl was here
with a buffalo,
and she started screaming,
"It's taken it, it's taken."
Wade: The girl was hysterical,
commotion in the water,
and couldn't see the head
of the buffalo,
could just see the hindquarters
thrashing around
and the tail of this other
animal waving around,
and probably what happened
was the creature
grabbed it by the head
and pulled it in.
So, didn't actually see anything
of the buffalo
apart from its
hindquarters thrashing
and struggling in the water
as it sunk out of sight
with this tail
also waving around behind it.
The size of the thing...
I mean, we're used to going,
"It was this big."
This was the size,
not of the entire fish...
This was the width of the head.
I mean, can you imagine,
on these things, the mouth?
That is also the width
of the mouth.
I mean, you know, I could lose
myself head-first down there.
It's terrifying.
I didn't need any translation
at all for that last bit.
100%... there's nothing else
it could have been
but one of these
monster goonch catfish.
Narrator: Jeremy is eager to get
some firsthand evidence
of the murderous goonch
and wastes no time
putting a line in the water.
Wade: On the edge
of that moving water.
I can feel the lure.
Get! That is a fish.
That is a fish.
That is a fish.
That's not a rock.
It's a very animated rock,
if it's a rock.
It was kicking.
It's now... it's still there.
That was a bit of a kick
at the surface.
Just keeping an eye out now
to see if there's
any obvious snags.
Now, when it's on
the shorter line...
Loosen the clutch off a wee bit.
And it's really hammering
its head away.
It's like something's whacking
the tip of the rod.
The thing to do now is look
around for a place
to maybe bring it in away
from these rocks.
I think it's getting
quite tired out.
I need to tire him out
quite well in this water.
No question about that
being a fish.
Narrator: It's another
golden Himalayan mahseer.
It's not a monster.
Very strong fish, though.
The size of this multiplied up
5, 10 times...
Quite frightening in this water.
Narrator: Having still not
caught the man-eater,
Jeremy and Vinay
have gone in search
of wildlife guide Gavin Bischt,
who has first-hand experience
with the goonch.
Wade: By normal standards
this is ridiculously strong,
but you need very strong stuff,
even in a small river like this.
You need something, yeah.
Narrator: Even though Jeremy
is fishing with 80-pound line
and a shark rod,
Gavin and Vinay think
it might not be strong enough
to withstand the force of
a thrashing, monstrous goonch.
Believe it or not, back there
is actually
somebody's fishing tackle.
Wade: Hold on.
The power lines?
- Exactly.
How does that work?
They hang the other wires
from it,
pull it down the cliff,
and just zap the water.
11,000 volts of power line.
That method
managed to secure somebody
at least a 150-kilo goonch.
For example,
just take a look at this.
Oh, that is a lump
of something there,
which is just half
out of the water.
I think I maybe recognize
the person holding the tail.
Gavin, you were there?
So, how big do you reckon
it was?
Above 100 kilo.
More.
Definitely more.
Narrator:
A catfish over 330 pounds
is a far cry from the mahseer
Jeremy has landed so far.
Good grief,
that is... that is a monster.
There we are.
That's the tail.
And, there we are... that's
about halfway along the body,
and the head
is somewhere down here.
Under Gavin's guidance,
Jeremy will cast a bait
at the same spot
that once yielded a monster.
Wade: Gavin's given me some
inside-track information here.
This apparently is the local,
special bait for goonch.
This is a bit of goat lung.
I'm about a meter away.
I can get the fumes.
So, that's not good news for me
at the moment,
but hopefully it's good news
later on
when Mr. Goonch
comes snuffling around.
I reckon he's gonna know
this is there.
Narrator: While Jeremy
prepares more tackle,
one of Gavin's assistants
alerts him.
Yes?
Yes?
What happened?
He take and he go.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Man:
Little bit biting.
So it took some line, right?
What, one, two meters?
Fast?
Fast, slow?
Two meters, yeah?
Fast and then slow?
All right.
I think for now...
Maybe leave it.
Narrator:
The spot looks promising,
so Jeremy fishes into the night.
Right, there's a fish on,
and I've got a tight drag
on here,
and it's not running.
Did put in a bit of a run.
There we go.
See, the rod's actually...
There we go, it's running.
Running, running.
Here we go.
It's a turtle!
Is this a first, Vinay?
Is this the first one of these
you've seen?
Danish anglers hooked
a 50-kilo turtle.
I think I got off lightly here,
didn't I?
Catch-and-release
or turtle soup?
I'm being fed very well
at the moment,
so I think this chap can go back
and swim around in peace
for a bit.
Another monster of the deep.
Narrator: It's not long before
Jeremy gets a second strike.
Wade: This is moving.
This is moving.
Oh, listen to that reel.
Wait a minute.
It's pausing.
Now, what I've got to do...
See if I can get
the click off now.
What I'm trying to do is
keep it away from that side.
And it's moving again.
It's moving.
This, we know, is a heavy fish.
It's a heavy fish.
It's a heavy fish,
so I need some serious gear.
And... wait a minute.
No, I thought it had got
some motion in it.
I'm gaining line,
I'm gaining line.
Very, very slow.
I'm gaining line.
It's gone still.
Wait a minute.
I can't feel anything.
I can't feel anything.
Wait a minute.
The line feels suspiciously...
Gonna keep the pressure on.
Oh, oh, oh!
Hook's come out.
I think it's the hook.
It's the hook.
It's gone.
Whatever it is, it's gone.
Whatever it is, it's gone.
That was a very heavy fish.
Very heavy fish.
Very heavy fish.
The line is all shredded here.
It cut the line on a rock.
On a rock.
Very heavy fish.
Damn.
Damn.
When I came to India,
I had quite a simple idea
in my mind...
I wanted to relive
the experiences
of those old Victorian writers.
However, the fish
are just not distributed
as they were in the past,
so a very, very complicated
picture.
Gradually, gradually,
I started to get a taste
of what those writers
experienced,
but it's turning out to be
a much more complicated quest
than I thought
it was going to be.
Narrator: Last night's
close call with a goonch
has Jeremy more determined
than ever
to land one of these
Himalayan giants.
Wade: Okay, there's a fish
hitting close in.
Oh, my goodness.
My goodness. My goodness.
That is a run.
That is a run.
That is a run.
That is a run!
Right, okay.
Okay, that run has now stopped.
I'm gonna be careful.
That didn't feel like
a particularly big fish
when it hit,
but that was a strong run.
What I've got to do,
I've got to try and get it away
from those rapids
into the quieter water.
All right.
This is time for extreme care.
Extreme care.
Narrator:
Ramu is responsible
for ensuring the fish
doesn't get away.
I can just see the fish.
I can see the fish.
I can see the shadow.
Can see a shape under the water.
Feels big.
Just steady, steady, steady.
Wait, ram.
Wait, wait, wait.
Wait, ram.
Okay. Okay.
Slowly, slowly, slowly.
Slowly, ram.
Okay.
No, wait, wait, wait.
Wait, ram. Wait.
Okay.
Ram, come close.
Come close.
Okay, ram. No, no.
Okay.
Lift.
Okay.
Okay.
That will do.
That will do.
That will do.
Narrator: It's not a goonch,
but it is an impressive mahseer.
Ooh, what a fish.
That is the fish.
And it's not
just about the fish,
it's about catching it
in an amazing place like this.
Mountains all around,
wild water, rapids,
epic fight...
I mean, absolutely unforgettable
angling experience.
Let the water settle.
Narrator: Catching a large
mahseer is no small feat,
but Jeremy still has his sights
set on a monster goonch catfish.
The locals are hearing
of Jeremy's intent
and have horrifying tales
to share.
Apparently,
what it was was two people,
a father and his son,
from the other side
of the big river.
They crossed over to get
some supplies from town,
and then on their way back...
They were a bit tired
after their journey,
they stopped by the river,
had a drink,
and the man had sat down
and had a little bidi,
a little cigarette,
and the boy said,
"I'm just going to go and play
in the water."
So off he went, and the next
thing that happened
was that the man saw his child
actually being dragged off
into the water.
Yeah, and the child started
screaming to his father,
"Father, something's grabbed me,
and it's pulling me in,
so come and help me."
So the father couldn't decide
what to do initially,
and then he picked up a big rock
to try to come over
and try to hammer
at the creature with the rock,
but it didn't work.
And this thing just moved
into deeper water.
And the child disappeared.
The child disappeared.
Wade:
Somewhere in this river,
if the local stories
are to be believed,
is a hideous monster that has
been growing fat on human flesh.
Anyway, this thing has been
invading my dreams.
I've been becoming
a bit like Captain Ahab
or whatever
of the freshwater world.
It's been becoming a bit
of an obsession.
Narrator: Jeremy has come
to a stretch of river
near where goonch sightings
have been reported.
Wade: Right.
Now, I just re-cast the fish
bait a little downstream.
What happened, the current
took it way, way down,
and I thought, "I'll just
put it back in this eddy,"
and I was retrieving it,
and something grabbed it
on the way in.
Vinay, what do you think?
By the way the line felt,
it could be goonch as well.
Staying down very deep.
Oh, wait a minute.
It's coming up.
Coming up.
Coming up.
What does Gavin think?
Gavin?
Gavin says a mahseer.
Vinay's erring on the side
of goonch.
It's quite strange.
The line is all turning
in circles.
Ah, there it is.
I saw a tail.
I saw a glimpse of something.
A glimpse of something.
Something, something, something.
It's a goonch.
Gavin, something tells me
this fish doesn't like you.
Let's bring him up.
Whoo.
Narrator: It's a goonch...
Not a giant, but it's a start.
Wade: Whoo.
Well, this is the monster
of the deep...
The goonch catfish...
A real rarity.
Trying to see if we can get
a look in and see those teeth.
You wouldn't want that to be
your last sight on Earth,
would you?
It's tensing, it's tensing.
Vinay, how many of these have
you seen alive on the bank?
Vinay: Not too many.
It's an extremely rare fish.
I would say
that the buffer zone,
there are hardly any goonch,
and whatever there are,
they usually get sold
on the market.
So, although we're actually
in a conservation area,
where there is, in theory,
catch-and-release,
there's still not very many
of these things around?
Not really.
So, very nice to see, indeed.
I'm now in
the relatively happy position
of having caught one
of these goonch catfish.
What I find harder to imagine
is a fish
that might be 3 times
the length,
10 times the weight.
I've been waking up in sweats,
almost, at night,
thinking about
this abominable thing
lying on the bottom
with tentacles.
Every now and again,
when something just crosses
its field of vision,
that cavernous mouth opening up.
Narrator: A nice catch,
but a goonch this size
would not be capable
of attacking a grown man.
In order to grow large enough
to attack humans,
the fish would need
a steady food source,
which just isn't present
in this section of river.
At sacred locations
along India's riverbanks,
Hindus cremate their dead.
Wade: Today, getting up,
the first thing I saw
was a funeral procession
coming to the river,
and they made a pyre
at the side of the water,
burned the body,
and when the flames
had subsided,
they threw the remains of the
burning pyre into the water,
and, almost immediately,
we saw the rings spreading
in the water from fish rising.
And probably mahseer,
most of those,
but down there, also,
is this monster, the goonch,
which has grown fat on,
among other things,
the remains from
these burning pyres.
It appears that this creature
has made a quantum leap
from scavenging on human remains
from funerals in this river
to actually hunting
living animals...
Not just any living animals,
but including humans.
What kind of angler am I
to know about a fish like that
and not put a hook in the water?
Narrator: This time,
Jeremy is prepared with
700-pound breaking-strain rope
and some unconventional tactics.
Wade: This is my chance
to catch the beast,
and what I've got to do is build
a simulated cremation pyre,
bait my hook with
something pretty awful...
I mean, the remains
of a dead goat here...
Dangle it over the fire
to lightly char it,
and then chuck it in the water,
and the reason is,
the goonch catfish
has actually learned
to associate fire
on the riverbank
with food ending up
in the water.
So a very grim
and gruesome procedure,
but Vinay assures me
it will up the chances
of tangling with the beast.
Narrator:
That night, nothing takes.
But the next morning...
There, there!
There's one in!
It took a static bait
on the bottom,
and there was a knock,
and then there was a snatch
of a couple yards.
Wait a minute.
Yes. Yes.
Has a long...
Has a gray shape in there.
Now how the hell
do I get it off the bottom?
I've learned to be very, very
careful with this.
Extremely, extremely careful.
There's a fish on the end
in that heavy current.
And what I've got to do,
I've got to try
and keep a cool head.
My nerves are just...
He's now in
the really strong current,
so I might have to let him run.
There he goes.
Yeah.
And it's on the move.
It's on the move.
It's off the bottom.
And saw a flash
of the fish there.
And I think what I've got to do
is just try and keep patient,
keep patient, keep patient.
But look at this.
It's just an absolute
dead weight on the end.
Absolute dead weight.
So I've got to keep up
the pressure,
but be ready for that kick.
The trouble is...
The trouble is he's just in
this really strong current.
Look at me trembling.
Oh, good grief.
And he's out
on the surface again.
The trouble is, it's just such
a difficult position
to land a fish from.
Is anyone there?
Is it Gavin, or...?
Can someone...
Vinay, are you all right?
Can someone...
Gavin, get the rod, get the rod,
get the rod.
Someone get the rod, please.
Not the beast, but a beast.
Ahh.
We have it.
We have it.
Right.
Just smile for the camera.
Look at that.
He's been in the wars.
He's looking worse for wear
than I am.
We'll get some water on it.
First, like, I'm like,
this is one ugly beast,
but then, if you think of it
in sort of evolutionary terms,
something which has survived
since prehistory,
with all that's been thrown
at it as a species,
then, you know, in one sense,
this is actually quite
a beautiful beast, as well.
Unlike sort of little, raspy
teeth like the European catfish,
it's got these vicious
pointy things, like a shark.
This one has the look of a real
battle-scarred old fighter.
I mean, he's minus
most of his tentacles,
and there's actually bone
at the base of the tentacles.
I never knew
that that was the case.
Bare bone on the edge
of the tentacles.
So, looks like
it's maybe my lucky day,
but also, lucky day
for this chap here, as well.
If somebody else
had caught him, perhaps,
he might not be going back
into the river.
Well, there it is...
I mean, the beast
out of the water.
I really didn't know
if I was going to see that.
I mean, all the misery
and effort I've been through,
and the time,
but thanks to the team's effort,
we've done it.
Fantastic. What a fish.
There's a kick.
There's a kick.
Go on.
You can go.
Ah. Aha.
I came here in search of the
ultimate angling experience.
Now I've caught
smallish mahseer,
I've seen big mahseer,
then I heard about this beast,
the goonch,
and I thought, "I really want
to catch one of those."
Trying to catch the goonch
did become something
of an obsession for me,
particularly when I heard about
this horrendous man-eater.
Now, just caught
this 60-pounder,
which almost certainly
would have fed on human flesh
because of the funeral pyres
they have here,
but it wasn't the biggie,
the man-eater,
which would have been a fish
probably 10 times the weight,
3 times the length.
In reality, that fish,
on the other end of the line,
I think a more likely outcome
is that I would have ended up
in the water, rather
than the fish on the bank,
so best left to the imagination.
Narrator: It would not be
Jeremy's last encounter
with the goonch catfish.
Several years later,
in one of his
"River Monsters" programs,
Jeremy would catch a goonch
nearly 6 feet long
and over 160 pounds.
Jeremy's search for monster fish
had only just begun.
biologist and extreme angler.
His life's passion is
investigating the myths
and legends that lurk in our
rivers, lakes, and nightmares.
But long before he was the host
of "River Monsters,"
Jeremy searched
for freshwater monsters
well off the public radar.
In 2005, a small film crew
was sent to document
his first journey to India.
This long-lost footage,
never before seen
by U.S. audiences,
captures Wade's pursuit
of the Himalayas' most horrific
river dweller...
the goonch catfish.
Cameras follow Jeremy
as he tracks down eyewitnesses
of the murderous fish
and as he unravels
the gruesome details
of how the goonch developed
a taste for human flesh.
And in the end, a disturbing
piece of evidence
helps Jeremy land a man-eating
goonch for the first time.
In 2005, adventure
fisherman Jeremy Wade
traveled to the Indian Himalayas
to pit his skills against the
mountains and their monsters.
I was sitting in England,
thinking perhaps that
my fishing days were over
when somebody gave me a copy
of a classic Victorian book
about fishing in India,
and from that moment on, I was
scarcely able to sleep, even.
I was just waking up thinking,
"I've just got to get myself
into the Himalayas
and experience
some of the things
that those old writers
experienced."
In addition
to the mountain species,
there's a whole range of weird
and wonderful fish in India,
and a perfect place
to go for that
is where the mountains
meet the plains.
And so I'm on my way now
to check out these creatures.
Narrator: Jeremy's first stop
is Tumaria Reservoir,
a large lake fed by the rivers
of the Himalayas.
Each summer,
when the waters are low,
local fishermen descend upon
the lake in large numbers.
Jeremy has come to
the daily fish weigh-in
to gather local intelligence
and to see what strange fish
inhabit India's waters.
Everything else, rohu.
Rohu, rohu, rohu, rohu.
This is a bit of a lump.
This is a big fish... a cutler.
A weird carp
with an upturned mouth.
Feeds on algae,
but still manages
to pack on the weight.
Put a bend in the rod,
if ever you could get it there.
So, quite carp-y.
Very solid. Very solid body.
Cylindrical, and nice salmon
pink-y color, almost,
on these scales down the middle
of the body.
So, that's a lurch and a couple
of different ones going on top.
These are the
They're both
is the...
Otherwise known as shovelhead...
Flat, broad head.
So, this is a lurchy
or mully catfish.
Similar in many ways
to the European catfish...
Tail and long anal fin,
but get to the head,
and the picture changes.
You got a very toothy,
fearsome head on that.
Certainly wouldn't want to be
a fish disappearing down there.
What a hideous thing to be
your last sight on Earth.
As an angler,
there's four fish here
that have really fired
my imagination.
There's two catfish,
the mully, or freshwater shark.
There's the deeper-bodied
shovelhead catfish,
and then there's two species
of carp...
There's the cylindrical rohu
and the deeper-bodied cutler.
Now, if I could catch any one
of those on a rod and line
against this competition,
I'd feel I had a result there.
Huge fish being removed
from the lake before my eyes.
Local throw-net fisherman
staggering under the weight
of some huge catch.
Great to see in one respect,
but in the other respect,
has me thinking,
"What is left in here for me?"
Narrator: The first thing
Jeremy needs
is some local intelligence.
Vinay is a well-known
local fisherman
who agreed to help Jeremy
land his first Himalayan fish.
With Vinay's guidance,
he's ready to try his luck
on the lake.
But his first catches
aren't exactly the monsters
he had expected.
Wade:
That's a pretty little thing.
Vinay:
It's a tengara catfish.
Yeah, very nice.
It's got a poisonous pectoral.
Careful.
There's spines there.
This is a tengara catfish,
a little species of catfish,
and it croaks when it's caught.
Narrator:
Jeremy handles the tengara
catfish with caution,
being careful to avoid
its poisonous pectoral fin.
It's another species.
This is a type
of snakehead fish.
It's called a snakehead
because, well, just...
That's what it instantly
reminds one of.
It looks like the head
of a snake
grafted onto the tail of a fish.
The fish in Tumaria Reservoir
may be exotic,
but they're hardly the monsters
that Jeremy traveled all the way
to India to catch.
Oh.
This feels like something
other than just a tiddler.
Wait a minute.
It's going in the weed.
It's floundering a little bit.
This is one that isn't
a tiddler, tiddler.
Putting a bit more of a bend
in the rod.
And coming towards the weeds.
Just see if I can turn him
from there.
And coming in close.
And slightly nervous,
because I've just been catching
these tiny, little catfish
until now.
Reverse back onto the shallows.
I think he's just about ready
to come in,
but I better be
on the safe side.
Just gonna whip it in here.
And it just... just, just,
just, just, just.
All right.
And there we go.
I think that's one
of these rohu,
one of these carp species.
Okay, not a monster,
but he's more
than the little tiddlers
I've been getting until now.
So, very pleasing to get
my hands on one of these.
It was one of the species
I wanted to see close-up,
in the flesh, alive,
so that's nice.
Very pretty, bronze-y,
colorful fish.
Narrator:
Jeremy is disappointed
by the size
of his first day's catch,
so he's hoping local fishermen
will share some
of their techniques.
Nets, not rods, are the
preferred method around here.
I think anglers
always have this idea
that netting is
a very easy activity.
I tried it
a couple times before,
but this operation here,
it's a bit like
a military operation,
and the things
I've been catching
would actually just go through
one of these holes.
So that's an indication
of the size of fish
we're hoping to catch...
Stuff that won't go
through those holes.
Oh, they're about to start.
So...
Narrator: The local fishermen
use a combination
of noise and terror tactics
to catch fish.
They drop their net
in a giant circle,
then drive the fish inside.
We've now got the bottom
of the net here,
top of the net here,
and here's the float line,
there's the lead line.
It's being gathered in,
and this is where the fish
will have collected.
Let's have a look.
Let's have a look.
Anything?
One tiny catfish.
One tiny catfish.
Oh! We got a few.
There's a few.
Ooh!
Very impressive operation.
Just military precision,
and using the whole idea
of scaring the fish,
scaring the fish into the nets.
And seeing this operation
close up,
I'm not surprised at all
that I'm not catching anything.
Narrator:
Jeremy came to catch a giant,
and, so far, the giant
is nowhere in sight.
The situation at the lake here
is a bit desperate,
to be honest.
The presence of all
these fishermen
was completely unexpected.
I was expecting just
a take-over operation,
but the fish are actually
disappearing out of the water
before my eyes,
and the ones that are left
are obviously running scared...
Have to get them to take a bait,
so I'm a bit stuck for ideas.
It's a real, you know,
it's gonna be hard work...
Hard work, indeed.
Narrator: Jeremy realizes the
Himalayan giant he's read about
may nearly be gone.
Wade: Although the odds
are against me here,
all I can do, really,
is keep trying.
This place is about
to be cleaned out,
so can I tempt one to the hook
before they are all scooped up
by the net?
Narrator: The next morning,
Jeremy gets an early start
at Tumaria Lake.
Competing with over 300 Bihari
and Bengali fishermen,
it's a race against time
if he's going to stand any
chance of hooking a big fish.
He's got to get on the water
before the other
fishermen arrive.
I think if I get just a fish
of any description
out of this water it's going
to be an achievement.
Against the competition and the
disturbance that there is here,
just that would do me...
Just a fish.
Hold on.
There's something on here.
Have you got the net?
Bring the net.
Something's taken a live bait
out here.
Wait a minute.
Push out a little bit.
Push out, push out.
Push out, push out,
push out, push out.
Lift, lift, lift,
lift, lift, lift.
That's it.
Good, good.
Oops, my foot's getting stuck.
Foot's getting stuck.
Let's take it
up to the grass here.
So this is a lurchy or mully,
one of these freshwater sharks,
as they call them.
The Wallago attu,
scientific name...
Very ugly name
for quite an ugly fish,
and known in English, sometimes,
as a freshwater shark.
Impressive sight, looking down
the mouth of this thing.
I've got be very careful
where I put my thumb.
Lots of needle-like teeth.
Oops, there's the hook.
Let's get it out of the way.
Big eyes close to the mouth,
so, looking at the design,
those teeth and those eyes,
you would guess,
even though he's a catfish,
he's a bit of a predatory one.
Almost like a snake.
Very slipper customer.
Slippery customer.
Now, of all the fish, possibly,
that I wanted to get here,
to see, this is the one,
and he's quite a nice specimen.
The freshwater shark,
Wallago attu,
toothy catfish, one of
the great tropical weirdos.
Oh, that's great.
After all that slogging
against all that competition,
it really feels good to get
my hands on one of those.
Narrator: Jeremy decides
to leave Tumaria Lake
and travel deep into the heart
of the Himalayan mountains
in search of untouched
fishing grounds
where he might stand a better
chance of catching a monster.
I don't think
the Victorian gents
would have quite been traveling
like this.
Okay, a vehicle is traveling
in style in some sense,
but I'm on the roof.
I think they'd have been
downstairs.
Narrator: After a 16-hour
bone-shaking jeep ride
up the Himalayan mountains,
Jeremy arrives at what he hopes
will be the monster's abode.
The obvious thing,
looking at this water here,
and also because it's nice
and instant,
is to give it a go on some
artificial lures.
Obviously, I don't know exactly
what's going to work here,
so I've got not quite everything
including the kitchen sink,
but a fair old selection
of stuff.
Now, the old books tended to
talk about natural coloration
on these lures,
so I'll definitely
give that a go,
but I've also brought some more
modern, whacky, lurid designs
as well,
but then just also make it up
as I go along.
Fish, fish, a fish.
It's the first fish.
It's the first fish
from this river.
Just great to have something
hang on the lure,
because I've just been fishing
for about an hour, I suppose,
with nothing doing at all.
Small fish, but very welcome,
if anything,
just to get the reflexes going,
because it's so easy
after thrashing the water
with nothing happening
just to get into
that sort of torpor, almost,
where you think
nothing's gonna happen.
And if it happens
and a big fish takes,
then you're just
gonna mess it up.
And it's a fish.
Nice to catch a fish.
A good confidence boost, anyway,
to get even a little one.
First fish... significant fish,
whatever,
even though it's a small
first fish from this spot.
It's very nice.
Narrator: Having landed a small
golden Himalayan mahseer,
Jeremy and Vinay go in search
of local villagers,
who, they hope,
will have information
on where the monsters
might be hiding.
Stories of a horrifying creature
begin to emerge.
Wade: I keep hearing
about this monstrous catfish
that lives in these waters,
a thing called a goonch,
and it sounds
a complete abomination.
All I'm getting about
this goonch is rumors.
Very few people have seen one,
very few people know very much
about it at all,
and my curiosity level
is just building.
I very much want to come
face-to-face
with one of these creatures.
Narrator: Jeremy is now consumed
with stories
of the aquatic equivalent
of the yeti.
Wade: Hear a lot of tall tales
to do with fish.
They're normally second,
third, fourth, fifth...
Who knows how many? hand.
Man Singh here is an eyewitness
to quite a horrifying story,
and we are approaching the spot,
apparently,
where this event happened.
He was out at the shop.
His little girl was here
with a buffalo,
and she started screaming,
"It's taken it, it's taken."
Wade: The girl was hysterical,
commotion in the water,
and couldn't see the head
of the buffalo,
could just see the hindquarters
thrashing around
and the tail of this other
animal waving around,
and probably what happened
was the creature
grabbed it by the head
and pulled it in.
So, didn't actually see anything
of the buffalo
apart from its
hindquarters thrashing
and struggling in the water
as it sunk out of sight
with this tail
also waving around behind it.
The size of the thing...
I mean, we're used to going,
"It was this big."
This was the size,
not of the entire fish...
This was the width of the head.
I mean, can you imagine,
on these things, the mouth?
That is also the width
of the mouth.
I mean, you know, I could lose
myself head-first down there.
It's terrifying.
I didn't need any translation
at all for that last bit.
100%... there's nothing else
it could have been
but one of these
monster goonch catfish.
Narrator: Jeremy is eager to get
some firsthand evidence
of the murderous goonch
and wastes no time
putting a line in the water.
Wade: On the edge
of that moving water.
I can feel the lure.
Get! That is a fish.
That is a fish.
That is a fish.
That's not a rock.
It's a very animated rock,
if it's a rock.
It was kicking.
It's now... it's still there.
That was a bit of a kick
at the surface.
Just keeping an eye out now
to see if there's
any obvious snags.
Now, when it's on
the shorter line...
Loosen the clutch off a wee bit.
And it's really hammering
its head away.
It's like something's whacking
the tip of the rod.
The thing to do now is look
around for a place
to maybe bring it in away
from these rocks.
I think it's getting
quite tired out.
I need to tire him out
quite well in this water.
No question about that
being a fish.
Narrator: It's another
golden Himalayan mahseer.
It's not a monster.
Very strong fish, though.
The size of this multiplied up
5, 10 times...
Quite frightening in this water.
Narrator: Having still not
caught the man-eater,
Jeremy and Vinay
have gone in search
of wildlife guide Gavin Bischt,
who has first-hand experience
with the goonch.
Wade: By normal standards
this is ridiculously strong,
but you need very strong stuff,
even in a small river like this.
You need something, yeah.
Narrator: Even though Jeremy
is fishing with 80-pound line
and a shark rod,
Gavin and Vinay think
it might not be strong enough
to withstand the force of
a thrashing, monstrous goonch.
Believe it or not, back there
is actually
somebody's fishing tackle.
Wade: Hold on.
The power lines?
- Exactly.
How does that work?
They hang the other wires
from it,
pull it down the cliff,
and just zap the water.
11,000 volts of power line.
That method
managed to secure somebody
at least a 150-kilo goonch.
For example,
just take a look at this.
Oh, that is a lump
of something there,
which is just half
out of the water.
I think I maybe recognize
the person holding the tail.
Gavin, you were there?
So, how big do you reckon
it was?
Above 100 kilo.
More.
Definitely more.
Narrator:
A catfish over 330 pounds
is a far cry from the mahseer
Jeremy has landed so far.
Good grief,
that is... that is a monster.
There we are.
That's the tail.
And, there we are... that's
about halfway along the body,
and the head
is somewhere down here.
Under Gavin's guidance,
Jeremy will cast a bait
at the same spot
that once yielded a monster.
Wade: Gavin's given me some
inside-track information here.
This apparently is the local,
special bait for goonch.
This is a bit of goat lung.
I'm about a meter away.
I can get the fumes.
So, that's not good news for me
at the moment,
but hopefully it's good news
later on
when Mr. Goonch
comes snuffling around.
I reckon he's gonna know
this is there.
Narrator: While Jeremy
prepares more tackle,
one of Gavin's assistants
alerts him.
Yes?
Yes?
What happened?
He take and he go.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Man:
Little bit biting.
So it took some line, right?
What, one, two meters?
Fast?
Fast, slow?
Two meters, yeah?
Fast and then slow?
All right.
I think for now...
Maybe leave it.
Narrator:
The spot looks promising,
so Jeremy fishes into the night.
Right, there's a fish on,
and I've got a tight drag
on here,
and it's not running.
Did put in a bit of a run.
There we go.
See, the rod's actually...
There we go, it's running.
Running, running.
Here we go.
It's a turtle!
Is this a first, Vinay?
Is this the first one of these
you've seen?
Danish anglers hooked
a 50-kilo turtle.
I think I got off lightly here,
didn't I?
Catch-and-release
or turtle soup?
I'm being fed very well
at the moment,
so I think this chap can go back
and swim around in peace
for a bit.
Another monster of the deep.
Narrator: It's not long before
Jeremy gets a second strike.
Wade: This is moving.
This is moving.
Oh, listen to that reel.
Wait a minute.
It's pausing.
Now, what I've got to do...
See if I can get
the click off now.
What I'm trying to do is
keep it away from that side.
And it's moving again.
It's moving.
This, we know, is a heavy fish.
It's a heavy fish.
It's a heavy fish,
so I need some serious gear.
And... wait a minute.
No, I thought it had got
some motion in it.
I'm gaining line,
I'm gaining line.
Very, very slow.
I'm gaining line.
It's gone still.
Wait a minute.
I can't feel anything.
I can't feel anything.
Wait a minute.
The line feels suspiciously...
Gonna keep the pressure on.
Oh, oh, oh!
Hook's come out.
I think it's the hook.
It's the hook.
It's gone.
Whatever it is, it's gone.
Whatever it is, it's gone.
That was a very heavy fish.
Very heavy fish.
Very heavy fish.
The line is all shredded here.
It cut the line on a rock.
On a rock.
Very heavy fish.
Damn.
Damn.
When I came to India,
I had quite a simple idea
in my mind...
I wanted to relive
the experiences
of those old Victorian writers.
However, the fish
are just not distributed
as they were in the past,
so a very, very complicated
picture.
Gradually, gradually,
I started to get a taste
of what those writers
experienced,
but it's turning out to be
a much more complicated quest
than I thought
it was going to be.
Narrator: Last night's
close call with a goonch
has Jeremy more determined
than ever
to land one of these
Himalayan giants.
Wade: Okay, there's a fish
hitting close in.
Oh, my goodness.
My goodness. My goodness.
That is a run.
That is a run.
That is a run.
That is a run!
Right, okay.
Okay, that run has now stopped.
I'm gonna be careful.
That didn't feel like
a particularly big fish
when it hit,
but that was a strong run.
What I've got to do,
I've got to try and get it away
from those rapids
into the quieter water.
All right.
This is time for extreme care.
Extreme care.
Narrator:
Ramu is responsible
for ensuring the fish
doesn't get away.
I can just see the fish.
I can see the fish.
I can see the shadow.
Can see a shape under the water.
Feels big.
Just steady, steady, steady.
Wait, ram.
Wait, wait, wait.
Wait, ram.
Okay. Okay.
Slowly, slowly, slowly.
Slowly, ram.
Okay.
No, wait, wait, wait.
Wait, ram. Wait.
Okay.
Ram, come close.
Come close.
Okay, ram. No, no.
Okay.
Lift.
Okay.
Okay.
That will do.
That will do.
That will do.
Narrator: It's not a goonch,
but it is an impressive mahseer.
Ooh, what a fish.
That is the fish.
And it's not
just about the fish,
it's about catching it
in an amazing place like this.
Mountains all around,
wild water, rapids,
epic fight...
I mean, absolutely unforgettable
angling experience.
Let the water settle.
Narrator: Catching a large
mahseer is no small feat,
but Jeremy still has his sights
set on a monster goonch catfish.
The locals are hearing
of Jeremy's intent
and have horrifying tales
to share.
Apparently,
what it was was two people,
a father and his son,
from the other side
of the big river.
They crossed over to get
some supplies from town,
and then on their way back...
They were a bit tired
after their journey,
they stopped by the river,
had a drink,
and the man had sat down
and had a little bidi,
a little cigarette,
and the boy said,
"I'm just going to go and play
in the water."
So off he went, and the next
thing that happened
was that the man saw his child
actually being dragged off
into the water.
Yeah, and the child started
screaming to his father,
"Father, something's grabbed me,
and it's pulling me in,
so come and help me."
So the father couldn't decide
what to do initially,
and then he picked up a big rock
to try to come over
and try to hammer
at the creature with the rock,
but it didn't work.
And this thing just moved
into deeper water.
And the child disappeared.
The child disappeared.
Wade:
Somewhere in this river,
if the local stories
are to be believed,
is a hideous monster that has
been growing fat on human flesh.
Anyway, this thing has been
invading my dreams.
I've been becoming
a bit like Captain Ahab
or whatever
of the freshwater world.
It's been becoming a bit
of an obsession.
Narrator: Jeremy has come
to a stretch of river
near where goonch sightings
have been reported.
Wade: Right.
Now, I just re-cast the fish
bait a little downstream.
What happened, the current
took it way, way down,
and I thought, "I'll just
put it back in this eddy,"
and I was retrieving it,
and something grabbed it
on the way in.
Vinay, what do you think?
By the way the line felt,
it could be goonch as well.
Staying down very deep.
Oh, wait a minute.
It's coming up.
Coming up.
Coming up.
What does Gavin think?
Gavin?
Gavin says a mahseer.
Vinay's erring on the side
of goonch.
It's quite strange.
The line is all turning
in circles.
Ah, there it is.
I saw a tail.
I saw a glimpse of something.
A glimpse of something.
Something, something, something.
It's a goonch.
Gavin, something tells me
this fish doesn't like you.
Let's bring him up.
Whoo.
Narrator: It's a goonch...
Not a giant, but it's a start.
Wade: Whoo.
Well, this is the monster
of the deep...
The goonch catfish...
A real rarity.
Trying to see if we can get
a look in and see those teeth.
You wouldn't want that to be
your last sight on Earth,
would you?
It's tensing, it's tensing.
Vinay, how many of these have
you seen alive on the bank?
Vinay: Not too many.
It's an extremely rare fish.
I would say
that the buffer zone,
there are hardly any goonch,
and whatever there are,
they usually get sold
on the market.
So, although we're actually
in a conservation area,
where there is, in theory,
catch-and-release,
there's still not very many
of these things around?
Not really.
So, very nice to see, indeed.
I'm now in
the relatively happy position
of having caught one
of these goonch catfish.
What I find harder to imagine
is a fish
that might be 3 times
the length,
10 times the weight.
I've been waking up in sweats,
almost, at night,
thinking about
this abominable thing
lying on the bottom
with tentacles.
Every now and again,
when something just crosses
its field of vision,
that cavernous mouth opening up.
Narrator: A nice catch,
but a goonch this size
would not be capable
of attacking a grown man.
In order to grow large enough
to attack humans,
the fish would need
a steady food source,
which just isn't present
in this section of river.
At sacred locations
along India's riverbanks,
Hindus cremate their dead.
Wade: Today, getting up,
the first thing I saw
was a funeral procession
coming to the river,
and they made a pyre
at the side of the water,
burned the body,
and when the flames
had subsided,
they threw the remains of the
burning pyre into the water,
and, almost immediately,
we saw the rings spreading
in the water from fish rising.
And probably mahseer,
most of those,
but down there, also,
is this monster, the goonch,
which has grown fat on,
among other things,
the remains from
these burning pyres.
It appears that this creature
has made a quantum leap
from scavenging on human remains
from funerals in this river
to actually hunting
living animals...
Not just any living animals,
but including humans.
What kind of angler am I
to know about a fish like that
and not put a hook in the water?
Narrator: This time,
Jeremy is prepared with
700-pound breaking-strain rope
and some unconventional tactics.
Wade: This is my chance
to catch the beast,
and what I've got to do is build
a simulated cremation pyre,
bait my hook with
something pretty awful...
I mean, the remains
of a dead goat here...
Dangle it over the fire
to lightly char it,
and then chuck it in the water,
and the reason is,
the goonch catfish
has actually learned
to associate fire
on the riverbank
with food ending up
in the water.
So a very grim
and gruesome procedure,
but Vinay assures me
it will up the chances
of tangling with the beast.
Narrator:
That night, nothing takes.
But the next morning...
There, there!
There's one in!
It took a static bait
on the bottom,
and there was a knock,
and then there was a snatch
of a couple yards.
Wait a minute.
Yes. Yes.
Has a long...
Has a gray shape in there.
Now how the hell
do I get it off the bottom?
I've learned to be very, very
careful with this.
Extremely, extremely careful.
There's a fish on the end
in that heavy current.
And what I've got to do,
I've got to try
and keep a cool head.
My nerves are just...
He's now in
the really strong current,
so I might have to let him run.
There he goes.
Yeah.
And it's on the move.
It's on the move.
It's off the bottom.
And saw a flash
of the fish there.
And I think what I've got to do
is just try and keep patient,
keep patient, keep patient.
But look at this.
It's just an absolute
dead weight on the end.
Absolute dead weight.
So I've got to keep up
the pressure,
but be ready for that kick.
The trouble is...
The trouble is he's just in
this really strong current.
Look at me trembling.
Oh, good grief.
And he's out
on the surface again.
The trouble is, it's just such
a difficult position
to land a fish from.
Is anyone there?
Is it Gavin, or...?
Can someone...
Vinay, are you all right?
Can someone...
Gavin, get the rod, get the rod,
get the rod.
Someone get the rod, please.
Not the beast, but a beast.
Ahh.
We have it.
We have it.
Right.
Just smile for the camera.
Look at that.
He's been in the wars.
He's looking worse for wear
than I am.
We'll get some water on it.
First, like, I'm like,
this is one ugly beast,
but then, if you think of it
in sort of evolutionary terms,
something which has survived
since prehistory,
with all that's been thrown
at it as a species,
then, you know, in one sense,
this is actually quite
a beautiful beast, as well.
Unlike sort of little, raspy
teeth like the European catfish,
it's got these vicious
pointy things, like a shark.
This one has the look of a real
battle-scarred old fighter.
I mean, he's minus
most of his tentacles,
and there's actually bone
at the base of the tentacles.
I never knew
that that was the case.
Bare bone on the edge
of the tentacles.
So, looks like
it's maybe my lucky day,
but also, lucky day
for this chap here, as well.
If somebody else
had caught him, perhaps,
he might not be going back
into the river.
Well, there it is...
I mean, the beast
out of the water.
I really didn't know
if I was going to see that.
I mean, all the misery
and effort I've been through,
and the time,
but thanks to the team's effort,
we've done it.
Fantastic. What a fish.
There's a kick.
There's a kick.
Go on.
You can go.
Ah. Aha.
I came here in search of the
ultimate angling experience.
Now I've caught
smallish mahseer,
I've seen big mahseer,
then I heard about this beast,
the goonch,
and I thought, "I really want
to catch one of those."
Trying to catch the goonch
did become something
of an obsession for me,
particularly when I heard about
this horrendous man-eater.
Now, just caught
this 60-pounder,
which almost certainly
would have fed on human flesh
because of the funeral pyres
they have here,
but it wasn't the biggie,
the man-eater,
which would have been a fish
probably 10 times the weight,
3 times the length.
In reality, that fish,
on the other end of the line,
I think a more likely outcome
is that I would have ended up
in the water, rather
than the fish on the bank,
so best left to the imagination.
Narrator: It would not be
Jeremy's last encounter
with the goonch catfish.
Several years later,
in one of his
"River Monsters" programs,
Jeremy would catch a goonch
nearly 6 feet long
and over 160 pounds.
Jeremy's search for monster fish
had only just begun.