Jeremy Wade on TV: Jungle Hooks (Discovery) - the Amazon arapaima, the Indian mahseer

Jungle Hooks (Amazon) & Jungle Hooks India to be shown again in June/July 2008 (UK)

The original Jungle Hooks series was one of the most watched programmes on multichannel TV when it was first screened in 2002. It follows Jeremy's search for the world's largest freshwater fish: the pirarucu, or arapaima, of the Amazon's backwater lakes. For another chance to see this 5-part series, tune to Discovery Real Time at the following times:

Sat 05 Jul 11.00am - ep 1: Prey or Predator?
Sat 05 Jul 11.30am - ep 2: Ordeal in the Amazon
Sun 06 Jul 11.00am - ep 3: Backwater Bites
Sun 06 Jul 11.30am - ep 4: Rods at Dawn
Sat 12 Jul 11.00am - ep 5: End of the Line

... and/or to Discovery Real Time EXTRA on:

Mon 14 Jul 6.00pm - ep 1: Prey or Predator?
Mon 14 Jul 6.30pm - ep 2: Ordeal in the Amazon
Tue 15 Jul 6.00pm - ep 3: Backwater Bites
Tue 15 Jul 6.30pm - ep 4: Rods at Dawn
Wed 16 Jul 6.00pm - ep 5: End of the Line

Arapaima under water

Jungle Hooks India

Victorian expats in the service of the British Empire told of supercharged monster fish in the Himalayas. Jeremy Wade sets out to see if these stories hold true today. Tune to Discovery Real Time at the following times:

Sun 22 Jun 11.30am - ep 1: Mountain Monsters
Sat 28 Jun 11.00am - ep 2: The Shikar Way
Sat 28 Jun 11.30am - ep 3: Reservoir Cats
Sun 29 Jun 11.00am - ep 4: The Goonch
Sun 29 Jun 11.30am - ep 5: The Last Pool

... and/or to Discovery Real Time EXTRA on:

Thu 03 July 10.00pm - ep 1: Mountain Monsters
Thu 10 July 10.00pm - ep 2: The Shikar Way
Thu 17 July 10.00pm - ep 3: Reservoir Cats
Thu 24 July 10.00pm - ep 4: The Goonch
Thu 31 July 10.00pm - ep 5: The Last Pool

Himalayan water monster

Watch Jungle Hooks preview

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Jungle Hooks is a fishing series with a difference. With the help of a diverse cast of characters, we are lowered beneath the surface of this bewildering region - to a reality even stranger than the Amazon we imagined. Meanwhile the hunt for the arapaima has as many twists as the great river's course.

“Nowhere else in fresh water is there a fish so large and sporting ... and yet this giant has hardly been tested on a rod.”

Leander J. McCormick, in Game Fish of the World (1949), on the pirarucu (Arapaima gigas) of the Amazon

Series features a large underwater predator not seen before on TV

“Many a sportsman has truly said that he would rather catch a big mahseer than shoot a tiger.”

Maj. A. St J. Macdonald, Circumventing the Mahseer (1948)

Discovery Real Time is Sky channel 250, Virgin TV channel 271.

Check programme times on Discovery Real Time site. Page shows current day's schedule, with simple navigation for future dates (up to 3-4 weeks ahead).