10:04
Yeah. I'm in India hunting the Sarang and I've got a fish on. Get down below it. Yes, it's still there. I can feel it. And I think tactically I should have just let that fish clear the rapid. It's not going to, you know, there's no danger in that rapid. Just clear to the quiet water down below. then I can make my way calmly down and uh and land it. But um mixed feelings. I'd normally say that was just poor judgment. But could it be more of the bad luck the Sarang is supposed to bring. I try to apply some clarity of thought. I've spooked my fish in the run, so I turn my attention to the pool below. Planning to put a bait on the bottom. I rig with heavy line, but I'm tired and starting to lose my focus.
Even with gear I'm familiar with, I'm starting to make mistakes. Sometimes we use line that's too thick. Birds nest on the cast that line in the current and just pulls it all out of position. It seems that everything is starting to unravel. Might even be snagged. No, it's not. Thank god. A bad cast. Bird's nest on the reel. Getting that off. The current takes it down, pulls it out of position, it's snagged on a rock. You go to all that trouble making up the leader. You get it snagged, it breaks, you got to start all over again. You know, it's just ridiculous.
Just bloody ridiculous. It's not just the gear. My temper is fraying, too. I have to get this situation back under control. That means getting into the water to recover my gear. I'm putting my feet potentially very close to whatever is in there. This fish has got me pushing my luck, making bad calls, and taking unnecessary risks. What's more, no fish is going to be hanging around after all that disturbance. Man-eating tigers. Wild elephants, lost fish, snags, and now this.
Last year, my crew narrowly survived a direct lightning strike on a river. I can't risk that happening again. What else is going on? Lightning to back off from the river for a while. The annual monsoon storms have arrived unseasonably early. These rivers will soon be in full spate and unfishable. But this might just be the break I need. An excuse to escape these waters swirling with superstition. There are other places to catch this fish. Sarang attacks are known across Southeast Asia. In Malaysia and Thailand, they are believed to devour small children. So, while the monsoon rages in India,
I'll continue my quest in Thailand's far south. I've fished in Thailand before for enormous freshwater stingrays. I think we've got it. I think we've got And vicious giant snakeheads. And I've heard of a lake here that's legendary among anglers for being home to the strangest cocktail of monster fish in the world. Oh, god. It's a freshwater freak show where rare giants from across the globe have been released to swim with native species, including the Sarang. There must be more river monsters here than in any other lake in the world. It's a long way from my normal fishing. But after my struggles in India, this could be the change I need.
I know they're in here. And here in Thailand, the fish doesn't have the supernatural power that it's supposed to have in India. So, I'm back to what I'm used to. Just me against the fish. But even here, I'm not taking any chances. I'm fishing like I've never fished before with four heavy rods, bomb-proof line, professional fishing guide, Scott, and electronic bite alarms. It's like an angling midlife crisis. The bait has hardly hit the bottom, but it's working. What's that? It could be an Asian red tail. I must be doing something right. I'd almost forgotten what it felt like to catch a fish. It is a red tail catfish.
Not what I came here to get, but uh an interesting fish to see. This is a native of these waters, native of Southeast Asia. A large native catfish swimming in the same waters as the serarang. It's tantalizingly close to what I've come to catch. that looked like a catfish of some description. That's an Amazon red tail. I think the fish are getting bigger, and this one is proof that I'm fishing a unique aquatic sanctuary. The Amazon red tail catfish are actually quite different. The Asian red tail has a smoother skin um and a slightly different shaped, more deeply forked tail.
I'm used to seeing this in the Amazon halfway around the world. And here it is thriving in Thailand. Uh this lake it really is uh a place of surprises. I'm ready to go. After all the frustrations in India, part of me feels like I've died and gone to angling heaven. But another part of me wonders whether hooking a serring like this is cheating. Has my goal of catching this fish turned to an unhealthy obsession? But as the next day dawn, the promise of a sarang and all the other remarkable fish in this lake is too much to resist.
Lovely. Those are very, very rare fish. Scott tells me there are over a 100 ser in this lake, but only eight of these. Is this a Chinese sear fish? This fish is so unusual. I know next to nothing about it. Don't know. I'm going to have to look this one up. I know exactly what it's related to. You know, it's almost like this place is mocking me. Here's a ray of fish. Here's another ray of fish. What I want is just eluding me. And there are more of those in here than there are things like that.
