River Monsters Television Show

[The J-Man!]

If you miss the show you can catch the highlights on the Animal Planet's HSOforum. FYI.

[Ralph Wiggum]

Cripes! After this weekend's show, anyone want to go to Spain???

[JimBuck]

I would love to see them release a DVD set of this series. Maybe some (ok, a TON) behind the scenes footage of how they setup some of the shots, rigging tactics, stories etc. Jeremy Wade is a great host and I could only imagine some of the footage laying on the editing room floor.

[french_lake_kid]

Haha I personally cant stand him, no offense, when your foating the river throwing to the bank with big swim baits and 120lb. Power-pro I think he could of allowed a little drag loosening, he pulled the hook on like the first 5 fish...Not to jack the thread but has anybody ever watched monster quest on History channel? Same concept...

[ChemE]

I agree. Both shows are overly dramatic and do more harm to conservation and sportsmanship than good.

[JimBuck]

No offense taken. Everyone's entitled to an opinion. While I do enjoy Monster Quest, I have a hard time finding commonalities between the two programs in terms of subject matter. IMHO Monster Quest deals more with folklore and the unexplained (see Mutant Canines, Birdzilla, Loch Ness Monster). Where as River Monsters is entirely based on well...fish. Both are great programs, but very different in subject matter. I'm going to sound like a real Jeremy Wade fanboy here but even attempting to cast standing up in a dingy while in current like that would be quite challenging to say the least. I imagine landing a big fish in those conditions would be next to impossible without swamping the boat or going for a swim. Nothing new for ol' Wade though.

[Lowblazah]

I agree. Both shows are overly dramatic and do more harm to conservation and sportsmanship than good.

I understand the overdramatic part of your statement but why do you think it does more harm than good to the conservation of the fish? (I didnt catch the Gator Gar episode so maybe I am missing something.)

[ChemE]

It seems that he spends most of the air time building a case for the eradication of a species if it is out of the ordinary enough to scary. Especially the Goonch episode. The Gator Gar episode I think he did a decent job of showing the extent contraction of the gar's range from the entire eastern half of the US to a handful of river systems in the south. He also explained that the fish won't eat anything it can't swallow whole. With the Piranha and Wels cat episodes he seemed to focus heavily on documented deaths attributed to the monsters. I guess I was hoping for more outright explanation that the fish is not really a monster but more an interesting creature. I do appreciate all the interesting camera work though. I would have liked to learn more about the introduction of the Wels to the Ebro and its ecological impact but that probably won't be included in a show with Monster in the title. At least people are finally getting some information about these interesting freshwater fish. Hopefully they will be inspired to ask more questions and not be too persuaded by the monster angle.

[wildcatcreek]

Personally, I love the show. You get to learn about all these crazy fish around the world you may not have known about.

[Surreal Deal]

Bad editing Job did anybody notice the two different pole's depending on the camera angle he was using in the last fight seen.

That got under my radar the first time but last night when I watched the rebroadcast it was driving me nuts. His rod kept changing color so often I thought I was going to have a seizure.

[mplspug]

I caught the rerun last night of the Wels cats. That was a good show. The guys clonking technique was a little off, but I believe they said he was the cameraman and not a guide, so I can forgive him.

Man I wish we had those in our rivers! I caught it about 20 minutes in. What were they using for bait from shore? It didn't seem very large.

I missed the first part, but he was talking as if they were maybe just recovering after their numbers declined? He kept saying that potentially in 20 years there would be 300#+ Wels? But he spoke like there was little chance of catching one that big today, as if they were just coming back from having a low population.

Compared to the other episodes, this one did not seem to be very melodramatic.

[ChemE]

The population of Wels cats in the Ebro was 0 30 years ago. Then somebody was allowed to introduce them as a "scientific" experiment. the population has since exploded to the detriment of other fish species. It would be interesting to learn more about the point of the "scientific" experiment and how it affected the Ebro ecosystem.

[Surreal Deal]

I thought that the Arapaima episode last night was quite lame - It would be one thing if the producers would just say, "Hey look, here's this really cool, weird, humongous fish that you've probably never heard of. Check it out!" But NO, they had to take the "Monster" angle and investigate whether or not the fish is responsible for unexplained deaths in the waters that it inhabits (Which coincidentally are cohabited by far more likely predators).

It's just sad that apparently the average American television viewer's attention span is so short that it is unprofitable to offer a show like this without adding the suspense of whether or not this is the week that the host will be eaten.

[JimBuck]

I'd have to agree, It was one of the weaker episodes so far. The high-speed footage of him wrangling the Arapaima in the net was very cool to watch. What I really wanted to see was the giant snake that they were described as being able to grow much larger than the anaconda's down there. Now that's a MONSTER.

[DTro]

To be honest, this entire series has been a disappointment to me.

[Ralph Wiggum]

You guys are hard to please. I think it's a pretty neat show.

[hanson]

Agree with you Ryan.

Given the option to have a show that features many of the world's fish such as this one, or not have a show at all, I'll take this one.

How many of you knew what an Arapaima was before this show? Larry Dahlberg actually did a show on these critters once, very cool!

I'm bummin that I haven't seen the Well Cat episode yet.

[mplspug]

Has there been a flathead episode? I know in the commercial he is holding one in the 20s. I made sure it wasn't a Wels when I saw the commercial again. I am thinking that may have been part of the gar episode? I haven't seen an entire episode yet. I am learning it is like a basketball game, you can pretty much see the most exciting parts (for us) in the last 15 minutes.

[Surreal Deal]

How many of you knew what an Arapaima was before this show?

Oddly enough I did but then I'm weird that way.

Maybe if the show runs long enough Jeremy Wade will eventually uncover the menacing 'Bluegill threat.'

[RAB]

I don't like the monster investigating aspect of the show either. I can can see the original idea for the show making sense. Look into some strange rumors about monster fish that most people have never heard of and then try to catch one on camera. Sounds pretty good. But then they get to over-dramatizing the whole thing and it turns lame.

But at least we get to see some fishing for some pretty cool fish.

Larry Dalhberg's show is the best. I bet I've seen every episode at least 3 times.

[mplspug]

Something tells me if you talked to the people who live around the waters they would laugh at most of the accusations of 'man eaters'.

He should do a show on guppies. Or maybe those fish that swim up you dingy and cause a lot of pain. Now that would be funny.

[Surreal Deal]

Or maybe those fish that swim up you dingy and cause a lot of pain.

The dreaded Candirú! Now THAT is a River Monster!

[ChemE]

Yeah. That would be a fun show. Could generate lots of footage of people running away from the river screaming. Here's a link to some recent candiru info: http://www.angelfire.com/biz/piranha038/candiru.html

[rushing]

Its not a bad show.