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River monsters 7.30 ITV tonight

Robson Green is truely aweful. He always seem to be the same in whatever he appears, be it "real life" angling, Christmas lights or Top Of The Flops: a cringy, glum-faced, "it's a tough job but someone's gotta do it", over-hyped, over sensationalised toss-pot. You can almost see his co-presenters and guides squirm at the mere threat of him opening his mouth. The only thing he has ever done that was half watchable was the Wild Swimming Adventure, and that was only because the prospect that he might drown.

Aside from the above mentioned though, there is one thing that really botheres me about RG: he seemingly has no respect for, and takes no care of his quarry. Check out the way he holds smaller fish by their bottom jaw, almost allowing the weight of the fish to rip it's lower jaw clean off. Not good.

There is no doubt: on the Knobometer the man is a bell-ringing, light-flashing, full-on, 100 per-center.
 
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Paul - do these fish scrap?

The first one he hooked looked to fight like a tarpon, but the one he actually landed seemed to come in like a lamb:confused:
 
Fight, Mike? Frenzy of OMG! leaping and tailwalking at the start, followed maybe by a run of such speed and power that promises much and you fear losing your rod, then, if it is a big fish, some deep slow running interspersed with a few further less-soaring leaps. Far better fighters than Nile perch of comparable size, but not as good as mahseer (which possess both breakneck speed and stamina - and greater fighting "intelligence").
 
Simon Lush said:
Is it just me or does the resume' after each interval irritate anyone else ? also why show an apparently edited version one night and then an hour long one the next ? cheap way to up the viewing figures? what?

Spectacular viewing though.
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Oh, forgot to mention. although i don't know jeremy wade personally he is a friend of a friend, and i spoke to said friend about the resume in the last series. He informed me that jeremy hated it but the reason for it was the series popularity in america, and due to their outrageous lust for 'commercials' the resume is a standardized must have on many of their channel's documentaries (or something to that effect can't remember his exact wording).
If there is indeed an hour long version i think you will find that this is the uk version and 'anglers' version, whereas the half hour version is the american version (short attention span...short programme) and for the non-angling general public who really just want to see the fish and not the events leading up to the capture.
 
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GTF must also be relatively rare. Mr Wade spent over three weeks trying to catch that one fish and also, if I remember correctly, I'm sure Paul will confirm either way, in Crazy River it took some time for them to locate, and then even longer to land fish. Must be even rarer than a Gt. Ouse barbel these days.
 
They're everywhere and nowhere, Haydn. There are long-known big Goliath hotspots a hundred kilometres or so upriver from the twin capitals Kinshasa and Brazzaville (which I have not fished, but passed a few times), but even these can fail to deliver and would disappoint the fly-in sport expecting a trophy during his week. Others areas, far more remote (remote as in virtually impossible to reach unless you can hire a private plane or spend possibly weeks waiting for then travelling in some discomfort on local river transport, then still requiring a boat / pirogue dugout and a motor when you get there), hold big fish, but are no pushover - seasonal timing and water conditions and hungry fish present, ready and willing being critical. Lot of effort in some pretty - no, totally - sh1tty conditions, I can tell you! Glad I did it, but..............
 
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Paul, I think I recall a picture in the book where Jeremy has malaria, His brother some phsycological problems and you with a few broken ribs. It's not the same stuff I'm reading about in Adventure Fishing - with it's fully equiped lodges, where after a hard day's fishing you can recline into a nice lazy-boy, Montecristo-Robusto in one hand, Glass of Chateauneuf in t'other. My heart tells me that if I was ever brave enough to chuck it all in, up sticks and do the off, then your way is best. My head says go with the robusto and the glass of red.
 
Dave Wingfield said:
When will you realise that the way people catch fish in foreign parts differs greatly to how we fish over here. If you dont like it, don't watch it. Its not rocket science.
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When will I realise? :D I have caught many fish in some of the poorer places in the world, and handed them over to the locals with no qualms whatsoever...I am well aware of the situation, and have NO objection to people on the breadline spearing, poisoning, or acquiring fish in any way they can. Where it can be a matter of survival, aquired western squeamish type objections have no place at all, the desperate need for protein overrides all of that.

The whole point of my post was that RG was being a total dickhead as usual, and claiming to have caught a fish...when in fact it wasn't 'caught' in the accepted sense of the word at all...and it certainly wasn't 'caught' by him :D

I also see no point at all in filming a perfectly acceptable method of obtaining food being carried out by a local indian, when the programme is supposed to be about fishing...and RG in person doing the fishing. Large specimens of the sort of fish shown in that clip are very catchable by traditional hook and line, and I feel it would have been preferrable in a 'fishing' programme to show us exactly that.

Perhaps YOU should read post's properly before commenting...or better still, if you don't like them, don't read them...it's not rocket science.

Cheers, Dave
 
George Maltby said:
Oh, forgot to mention. although i don't know jeremy wade personally he is a friend of a friend, and i spoke to said friend about the resume in the last series. He informed me that jeremy hated it but the reason for it was the series popularity in america, and due to their outrageous lust for 'commercials' the resume is a standardized must have on many of their channel's documentaries (or something to that effect can't remember his exact wording).
If there is indeed an hour long version i think you will find that this is the uk version and 'anglers' version, whereas the half hour version is the american version (short attention span...short programme) and for the non-angling general public who really just want to see the fish and not the events leading up to the capture.
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That explains that quite nicely George ! Unfortunately its becoming more and more common and to be honest its bad enough having to break up a perfectly good programme to watch 5 mins of adverts, but then another couple to replay the bits you just watched is just a complete bore,even in my advancing years i can remember what happened 10 minutes ago for Christs sake :mad:
 
Haydn Clarke said:
Robson Green is truely aweful. He always seem to be the same in whatever he appears, be it "real life" angling, Christmas lights or Top Of The Flops: a cringy, glum-faced, "it's a tough job but someone's gotta do it", over-hyped, over sensationalised toss-pot. You can almost see his co-presenters and guides squirm at the mere threat of him opening his mouth. The only thing he has ever done that was half watchable was the Wild Swimming Adventure, and that was only because the prospect that he might drown.

Aside from the above mentioned though, there is one thing that really botheres me about RG: he seemingly has no respect for, and takes no care of his quarry. Check out the way he holds smaller fish by their bottom jaw, almost allowing the weight of the fish to rip it's lower jaw clean off. Not good.

There is no doubt: on the Knobometer the man is a bell-ringing, light-flashing, full-on, 100 per-center.
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Not keen on him are you mate :D:D:D
 
"even in my advancing years i can remember what happened 10 minutes ago for Christs sake"


That's because you're not American Simon.
 
Enjoyed River Monsters - shame it wasnt a whole lot longer. Having seen the previous shows we all know that Wade would prefer to put the fish back; but Im sure some idiots will jump on the back of that fishes death. A pity, but what a creature. Even the misses was impressed.

As for Robson Green - well, what an idiot. And without wishing to sound like my Dad, was all that F'ing and blinding really necessary? I think not. Could there researches have not of found someone to help him catch one of those massive fish on rod and line. The whole spear thing was rediculous.

Pity Green gets and hour while Wade gets about 28 minutes. Still, I guess we should be happy there is some fishing on the box at all. Perhaps C4 will now show Catching the impossible at prime time, rather that early on a Sunday morning.
 
Simon Lush said:
A lot of Americans don't even realise what happened 10 minutes ago Ade, let alone forget it ;)
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I like Americans but you have to remember that your average small town, country dwelling, American has the sophistication of a twelve year old.

While waiting in the queue for a water rapids ride at a theme park I managed to convince the hill billy family behind me that the Dukes of Hazard was a documentary series.

The guy from New York who was listening in and shared our boat told me I was a bad man but "Waiting in line was better entertainment than the ride".
 
Adrian Williams said:
I like Americans but you have to remember that your average small town, country dwelling, American has the sophistication of a twelve year old.

While waiting in the queue for a water rapids ride at a theme park I managed to convince the hill billy family behind me that the Dukes of Hazard was a documentary series.

The guy from New York who was listening in and shared our boat told me I was a bad man but "Waiting in line was better entertainment than the ride".
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For a damning indictment On the mind-set of the average red-neck American Joe, then read Deer Hunting With Jesus by Joe Bageant, himself a self-confessed American red-neck Joe (although in his case there is a sharp mind between his ears). If it was fiction, it would be funny; it isn't and so it's actually quite worrying.
 
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it's better already, that river makes the Thames in flood look like a mill pool.
 
Just watched the longer version, far more interesting, just a good watch, no hype, no promotion of the latest "must have" tackle, just a very good view of real adventure fishing, fancy some of that, just need a month or so, an arm full of jabs and tons of cash!!!!!!!!!!
peter
 
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