By TREVOR LEONG
THERE is something about being in the presence of Jeremy Wade that makes fishos want to bend the knee a la Game of Thrones, and go “Your Grace”, followed by some grovelling.
Well, okay, maybe not all fishos. Just me.
But wide-eyed and full-grown groupies were aplenty at a recent press conference in Tokyo organised by The Discovery Channel to promote Jeremy’s latest angling adventure series, Dark Waters.
Best known for his series, River Monsters, Jeremy said Dark Waters focuses on investigative adventures to shed light on piscatorial mysteries around the world.
Sort of like an angling version of The X-Files, with loads of fishing action.
One of the episodes that gets even him excited is the one about the Tasmanian giant crayfish, which are fabled to be the size of dogs!
However, he did not mention whether the ‘dog-size’ reference is in relation to a chihuahua or a pit bull.
“It is said that if you were unfortunate enough to get your hand caught in one of its claws, [your hand] would be crushed!” he said, to gasps from a hall full of Japanese media representatives and a quartet of journalists from Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and the Philippines.
During the talkshow-like event hosted by Japanese celebrity comedian and fishing enthusiast Seiji Chihara, Jeremy also spoke about an episode on a little-known monster in Lake Garda, Italy, that has been described as a huge bear-like, half-snake, half-dinosaur creature.
But alas, just like the elusive Nessie at Loch Ness in Scotland, the Garda giant has never been conclusively documented. Hence, that episode on Dark Waters.
On the obviously arduous effort it takes to produce each episode of the series, Jeremy said although he is the face in front of the camera and the one physically hauling in the catch, most of the real work is done by his team.
True to his English gentleman character, he attributes the success of his work to his production crew and support staff.
He added that the difficulty factor in completing each episode is compounded by the fact that not all outings yield catch results – a situation any angler worth his knots would be familiar with.
But, of course, such footage is never shown, and from watching only the finished product, some may think that he is a gifted angler.
Amiable, charismatic and humble, Jeremy readily admits that he is “not a particularly expert angler”.
But whatever he knows, he willingly shares, as he did at another press event the next day where he patiently explained to a trio of non-fisho journalists how a fishing reel works and the general process of catching a fish on rod and line.
Being a biologist by profession with a degree in zoology, he was asked if he gets to use that skill set in his work for Animal Planet.
He explained that his education enhances his application of the acknowledged fish-catching mindset that is the mantra of serious fishos, that is, ‘think like a fish’.
“Most of the fish I catch are predators, and I understand that they need to catch prey in the most efficient way. If they do this in fast-flowing water and expend more energy than the meal would provide, they would eventually die if they kept doing it that way.”
Having a background in animal behaviour allows him to make a more accurate educated guess, such as that big fish ‘hold’ in calmer waters behind a boulder or fallen tree, where they can conserve energy while waiting to pounce on prey coming into the area to rest from the fast flow.
He related one anecdote where, after the director had called for the cameras to start rolling, he just stood there with his fishing rod in hand, scanning the water.
After a few moments, the director said: “Cameras are rolling ... start fishing, start fishing!”
And Jeremy replied: “I AM fishing.”
Remember that bit about conserving energy and being efficient? Humans are, after all, the top predators.
That was just Jeremy using his degree in zoology to find the best spot to place his bait instead of beating the water to froth with blind casts.
Such is his ‘fishing kung fu’ that an uninitiated person watching him continuously staring at the water would think that he was wasting time, when in fact he was already catching fish in his mind.
With such Jedi skills, is it any wonder that when I first met him that day in Tokyo, I went from a fairly articulate journo to being reduced to a gibberish buffoon who could not stop telling him what a big fan I was?
Also, I think I might have called him a demigod.
But he was kind and very easy to talk to. Why, after our interview, he even gave me a personally autographed copy of his book, River Monsters!
I have been fishing longer than I have been working, and I have caught my modest share of prized scaled bounty.
But my interview with Jeremy Wade ... that now sits way up there as my “most memorable catch”.
Jeremy Wade’s Dark Waters premieres on Animal Planet (Astro channel 556) on Sept 9 at 9.55pm.
