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

Coming soon: Flesh Eating River Monster - on Channel FIVE (UK) - Tuesday 21 October at 8pm.

In a remote mountain river in northern India, there have been a number of unexplained disappearances, of people and animals. Local people believe these are not simple drownings, but the work of a monstrous water creature. Fishing detective Jeremy Wade teams up with underwater cameraman Rick Rosenthal, and heads into the Himalayas to investigate....

Jungle Hooks (Amazon) & Jungle Hooks India repeats (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 series, tune to Discovery Real Time Extra on:

Wed 15 Oct 09.30am - ep 1: Prey or Predator?
Thu 16 Oct 09.00am - ep 2: Ordeal in the Amazon
Thu 16 Oct 09.30am - ep 3: Backwater Bites
Fri 17 Oct 09.00am - ep 4: Rods at Dawn
Fri 17 Oct 09.30am - ep 5: End of the Line

and Discovery Real Time on:
Sat 27 Dec 07.00am - ep 1: Prey or Predator?
Sat 27 Dec 07.30am - ep 2: Ordeal in the Amazon
Sat 27 Dec 08.00am - ep 3: Backwater Bites
Sat 27 Dec 08.30am - ep 4: Rods at Dawn
Sat 27 Dec 09.00am - 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 Extra on:

Sun 19 Oct 8.00-10.30am - eps 1-5

Mon 20 Oct 9.00am - ep 1: Mountain Monsters
Mon 20 Oct 9.30am - ep 2: The Shikar Way
Tue 21 Oct 9.00am - ep 3: Reservoir Cats
Tue 21 Oct 9.30am - ep 4: The Goonch
Wed 22 Oct 9.00am - ep 5: The Last Pool

Wed 22 Oct 9.30am - ep 1: Mountain Monsters
Thu 23 Oct 9.00am - ep 2: The Shikar Way
Thu 23 Oct 9.30am - ep 3: Reservoir Cats
Fri 24 Oct 9.00am - ep 4: The Goonch
Fri 24 Oct 9.30am - ep 5: The Last Pool

Wed 29 Oct 6.00pm - ep 1: Mountain Monsters
Wed 29 Oct 6.30pm - ep 2: The Shikar Way
Thu 30 Oct 6.00pm - ep 3: Reservoir Cats
Thu 30 Oct 6.30pm - ep 4: The Goonch
Fri 31 Oct 6.00pm - ep 5: The Last Pool

and Discovery Real Time on:
Sat 27 Dec 09.30am - ep 1: Mountain Monsters
Sat 27 Dec 10.00am - ep 2: The Shikar Way
Sat 27 Dec 10.30am - ep 3: Reservoir Cats
Sat 27 Dec 11.00am - ep 4: The Goonch
Sat 27 Dec 11.30am - 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).