Jeremy Wade River Monsters Stingray fishing Thailand – 07 05 2009
A pre filming exploratory expedition to the Maeklong River at Samut Songkran saw the Jeremy Wade positioned on a wide bend of the tidal river eagerly waiting for the incoming tide.
Fishing with heavy stand up rods fitted with large Okuma Titus Gold multiplier reels the angler lowered a small sand goby livebait down to the riverbed.
With the tide now at its highest point it did not take long before a slow run developed on one of the rods.
Quickly winding down into the fish Jeremy Wade was soon doing battle with yet another River Monster in the form of a Giant freshwater stingray.
A fifteen minute battle commenced which saw Jeremy Wade struggling to prise the unseen predator from its subterranean lair.
The fish was soon brought off the bottom with the rod bent at full fighting curve where it was played up through the middle layers with relative ease.
Moments later the Giant freshwater stingray was brought over the net before being carefully secured alongside the boat.
The Giant freshwater stingray was quickly transported to the riverside where scientists from Chulalongkorn University carried out an extensive scientific examination of the stingray.
The fish was observed to be a male and estimated to weigh 40kg’s having a wingspan of 1.1metres.
The freshwater stingray was released soon after capture after an electronic tag was fitted to the fish to assist in future identification.
With a few more hours of fishing time left on the incoming tide Jeremy Wade was soon repositioned in the productive area.
Almost an hour later the clutch on the multiplier began to click as another Giant freshwater stingray moved off with the bait.
Setting the hook firmly resulted in the fish going immediately to ground and imbedding itself deeply into the muddy riverbed.
Continued pressure once again saw the unseen prehistoric predator being pulled from the muddy substrate where it was quickly brought up to the surface.
The Giant freshwater stingray on this occasion was found to be another male with an estimated weight of 50kg’s being placed on the fish.
The River Monster was released after a scientific examination by the onsite scientific team and a few photographs for identification purposes.
After catching two Giant freshwater stingrays in a short period of fishing plans were made for the filming of the River Monsters Death Ray show for Animal Planet in the coming month.
