Nash Tackle Off The Hook Podcast - S2 Episode 38 - Jeremy Wade
This week joining Hassan in the podcast studio is global fishing superstar, biologist, author and star of the hit television series “River Monsters” Jeremy Wade.
Fishing meets worldwide celebrity in this unprecedented podcast, we still can’t believe we managed to get him on. I think it’s safe to say and as you’re about to discover Jeremy Wade is in a league of his own.
Jeremy sets the scene by talking about his carp fishing exploits in the 1970s and 1980’s in which time he managed to catch his current personal carp of 26lbs+ from Waveney Valley lakes back in 1977. Spoiler alert he has since managed to break that fishing our very own Nash Church Lake. Jeremy was also one of the youngest members of the British Carp Study Group (BCSG) joining at the age of just sixteen years old. Fishing was always in his blood and over his teenage years he shaped his choices to hopefully led him to a career where he could immerse himself in this passion for angling and water.
After a number of different jobs in various sectors and armed with a Zoology degree Jeremy set out following another burning desire and that is to travel and explore. He soon made yearly pilgrimages to the likes of India and The Amazon in search of infamous exotic large freshwater species such as Golden Mahseer and the Arapaima. Year after year he refined his location and gained intel on these species and a chance meeting with a director led to him filming “Jungle Hooks” his first appearance on tv. The series featured him landing an incredible hand line caught 100lb+ Arapaima and surviving a plane crash. The series was extremely successful, and he moved some years later to film “Jungle Hooks India” a series in which the world was brought the first filmed sightings of the man eating Goonch catfish.
Jeremy continued to live on a shoestring spending much off his time travelling or planning new adventures. He sold articles and photographs, but it was the development of “River Monsters” some years later that burst him into the public eye in incredible style. Jeremy talks about the process of filming these episodes along with the dangerous and incredible stories of things that happened “off camera” along the way. Jeremy talks about his favourite captures and locations as well as his appreciation for the team around him that make these amazing programmes come to life. After nine series River Monsters clearly struck a huge chord with a massive cross section of TV audiences and that’s something that still humbles Jeremy to this very day. From huge giant Thailand stingray through to incredible man-eating bull sharks Jeremy tells the most incredible tales of these fearsome beasts that have succumbed to his rod and line. He also shares the story of his sound man being struck by lighting, him being held and gun point and him having to “sexually assault” a crocodile in the name of science.
Finally, Jeremy discusses his goals and ambitions for the future as well as how he has handled his newfound celebrity. He talks about his love for UK fishing as well as one or two revelations about himself and his personal life outside of his tv work.
Jeremy is a true gentleman, utter professional and incredibly intelligent. His stories and accounts will keep you hooked (no pun intended) through out but underneath it all there lies an extremely determined individual who has dedicated and sacrificed his whole life to shedding light on the real-life mysteries within freshwater, what a man and what a life!
