River Monsters (Jeremy Wade) book- great read!!

[Stick500]

I'm reading his book River Monsters: True Stories of the Ones that Didn't Get Away right now and really enjoying it. One of the first things I discovered is that he got his start in fishing as an English carp nut! From there he struggled with several low-budget and harrowing journeys to the Amazon and Congo in an effort to write magazine articles about the exotic fish he was after. Eventually of course he got the dream TV gig, but he had to work pretty hard to get there. The story about the plane wreck in the Amazon is pretty scary.

Each chapter focuses on one type of fish and he details the trips and the fishing of course. One of my criticisms about the show was that he rarely showed us details of his rigs and baits, so you do get more of that in the book (although I still wanted to know hook sizes, etc!). You'll also see how wide open the debate is on what is the largest freshwater fish in the world- Wels cat, Mekong cat, sturgeon, stingray, Nile perch, etc. No one really knows for sure!

Has a real interesting tale about a Loch Ness-type monster in a deep Alaskan lake- I think he solves the mystery in the end, but no one has caught one yet!

The Hennepin County Library system has a bunch of copies right now and it's a pretty quick and easy read. Bet they're going pretty cheap on Amazon, too. Something to enjoy during the roughfish off-season.

[JeremyCampbell]

Thanks for the info.Jeremy seems to be swell angler and I watch his show when ever I have a chance.As far as his history fishing for carp in england, it would be awesome to see what he says.I read up alot on European style carping but his adventures with all those different species around the world might come into better light in book form.

Il be checking this book out stick500.

[Stick500]

I'm not quite done with the book yet but so far he doesn't talk too much about carping other than that was what he was crazy about as a young man and that it took a lot of patience and that he respects the fight the mighty carp put on. IIRC the first foreign trip he took in the '80s was to India to catch a Masheer (?) carp and the Goonch.

BTW, Wade is an excellent writer. Some of the descriptions of the epic battles are the best I've read about fishing.

[ThunderLund78]

Thanks for the recommendation. I gotta think the book is better than the show. I, too, can't resist watching the show but obviously they script everything but the catches for drama. No doubt he's in some shady places, but they lay it on a little thick sometimes.