Interviews
Jeremy Wade
Interviewed by William, added on 22/07/2007
After Chris & Bob's 'A passion for angling', TV fishing seemed to dry up for me, in fact I’ve not come across anything to talk off since, until I stumbled upon Jeremy Wade's Jungle Hooks, A breath of fresh air, an unpredictable, soul searching series, genuinely adventurous and above all else inspiring. I’m pleased to say Jeremy has agreed to an interview, so with out further a do;
1. The Amazon, and the search for the leviathan arapaima. Just how much research and planning goes into a trip like that? Once there, does the planning go out the window so to speak?
The series drew on 9 years' research -- what we filmed was a loose recap of my learning process over that time, compressed into 6 weeks. This meant we had a good breadth and depth of material, plus vital contingency plans. I also lined up the local help directly with people I knew -- otherwise we could never have done it in the budget, and it wouldn't have been made. There was a very detailed plan and cast of characters, but once we arrived the thing very quickly took on a life of its own, and our ability to communicate directly meant we could just go with the flow and respond to things on the hoof. Plus we were a very small crew, which made us very mobile. So although we never made it to some places we'd planned to fish, other opportunities presented themselves and we responded to them. It therefore turned out to be a very real adventure in its own right, with nobody knowing how it would finish, right up to the end -- and no need to play fast and loose with the chronology for dramatic effect, as happens with many documentaries.
2. You’re angling hero’s, who inspired you, or touched you the deepest? They don’t have to necessarily be famous.
When I was growing up on the Suffolk Stour, my school friend Simon Faithfull first showed me how to catch fish by design. For showing that there were bigger ones around, village cobbler Frank Page was the local expert by a mile. Graeme Whiting propelled me into carp fishing, for better or worse. Jack Hilton's writing intensified this affliction. The late Jon Burrows, sadly missed, introduced me to catfish and other rascally goings-on. Paul Boote was once an inspiration, his early writings about India setting me off for more distant waters. Bola, my guide on the Indian River Kaveri, oversaw my graduation to expedition-style fishing. And a certain Amazonian poacher, who has never held a fishing rod in his life, demonstrated all I needed to know about expedition staying power, without which even the best angling knowledge is a waste of time.
3. Your favourite artificial lure and why? You know if you could only have the one lure for ever more.
Used to be a Shakespeare Big S in homeopathic green -- ie with all its paint rasped and bitten off. Even with (like most plugs) its substandard hook attachments. You never knew what Amazon species it would pull out next -- piranha, tiger-striped catfish, traíra, arowhana, peacock bass. Nowadays maybe a Luhr Jensen Amazon Ripper, because takes on the surface are just heart-stopping -- but it's hardly an all-rounder. So I'll plump for a safe, predictable (unimaginative?) choice: a Rapala Shad Rap in that natural bronzy pattern, whatever it's called -- a well-made, strong, life-like, universal prey-fish imitation that will tempt everything from mahseer to arapaima.
4. During the filming of Jungle hooks was there anything the camera missed that you would like to tell us about?
Yes, but I wouldn't like to tell you about some of it! For some reason, whenever we were back in 'civilisation', getting stuck in toilets became something of a theme, in the Amazon and especially in India. Doors kept locking themselves from the outside with no human assistance. I think it was mechanical rather than paranormal, but some levels of coincidence make you start to think that the universe is trying to tell you something. We could have made a whole programme about one of our Brazilian helpers, a great strapping fisherman who livened up proceedings by constantly grabbing us and singing us songs. But although we were always on the look-out for interesting characters, we decided he was a little too interesting, and it would have meant straying right off our subject.
5. I read on your website, you were disillusioned at one point by the British angling scene, how do you feel these days?
I don't know enough about it these days, beyond third-hand rumours that come my way. It's certainly changed a lot since I upped and started doing my own thing elsewhere -- which ended up using up all my energy and spare cash, with nothing left over to keep doing anything here, beyond one or two dabbles per season, at most. I stopped fishing here because it was no longer an escape from the world, but I now know that's hard to find anywhere. I've been looking at quite a lot of British waters lately, and there are some quieter places here and there, which I am starting to visit with a rod.
6. Your favourite angling author?
Has to be Chris Yates, who perfectly evokes the type of fishing (particularly 'real' carping) that I wish I'd been able to do more of. John Gierach is also brilliant, even if, like me, you don't know one end of a trout from the other. His prose is so naturally conversational, which is such a hard thing to achieve -- with throwaway observations that are just razor-sharp.
7. Future plans regarding your fishing, is there a particular species fish playing on your mind at the moment?
I'm starting to dip my toe into British waters once again. This is quite exciting because I've been away from it, bar a handful of outings, for over 20 years. And quite by chance a small multi-talented team has come together to film the process. The problem is, these days if I see a fat carp snuffling through a weedbed I'm more likely to grab a camera than a rod. But I'm starting to get used to the idea again. None of us knows how it's going to turn out, so it should be interesting.
8. For anyone thinking of making there own films do you have any words of wisdom or tips?
Fishing is intensely boring as a spectator sport. Everything's going on inside the angler's head, but all you see from the outside is a bloke standing there with a rod. So the challenge is to somehow get the emotional, right-brain, non-verbal content onto the screen. Without that, even wall-to-wall whoppers is just fish porn and the viewer's attention will quickly drift off. This is where a good director comes in. I've been lucky to work with a real maestro, Gavin Searle, who didn't know anything about fishing, but who does know what makes a good dramatic story. His secret technique for getting an emotional reaction out of me is to swear a lot, and if that doesn't work resorting to violence.
Getting anything commissioned for TV is hugely hit-and-miss. It's no good just being able to catch big interesting fish -- there has to be a real, strong story as well. But getting all this background material on a short film trip can leave almost no time for fishing -- and then you've got a yawning audience looking at their watches and wanting to know when you're going to catch one.
But with DV camcorders now costing less than £200, and cheap editing programs available for home PCs, there's nothing to stop anyone shooting their own. If you do something really unique you could sell it as a DVD, possibly even get it broadcast. A friend of mine makes his own film every year, just to entertain friends and relatives. Making a good film will cost you fishing time, but you could end up getting more obsessed about getting the perfect shot/sequence than getting the fish. Get both and you could be onto a winner.
9. The self doubt and soul searching whilst closing in on the arapaima, the questioning your actions yet carrying on with goal was wonderful. But then catching your quarry on an Amazonian hand line how did that feel?
Actually it was very appropriate to catch it on a handline: it was a nice twist to the story -- even though part of me wanted to have caught it on a rod. Plus there was more direct contact with the fish, not cushioned by the spring of a rod and the drag of a reel. (We filmed the line-burns on my hands, but there wasn't time to show this.) I've since caught 100lb++ arapaima on a rod too, off camera, but in some ways this was less interesting, because it was actually easier.
10. And finally what’s your favourite item of fishing tackle, and why?
Probably the bass surf rod that I chopped about and re-ringed over 20 years ago to fish for mahseer. My departure to India was imminent and I was starting to think I'd never find anything up to the job. I would go into tackle shops and describe the kind of thing I wanted (10-11 foot, about 4lb test-curve) and they would laugh at me -- until I arrived at Terry Eustace's emporium. It's got a flexible tip, great through-action and some serious oomph in the butt, so it's a real versatile jack-of-all trades, which is ideal for travelling, when there's a limit to what you can carry. We go back a long way now -- it's probably the only rod in the world that has caught mahseer, goliath tigerfish and arapaima. Like me, it's looking the worse for wear these days, and I keep thinking I ought to retire it, but it's always a last-minute addition to the rod tube.
William and PurePiscator.com would like to thank Jeremy for kindly agreeing to this interview
Visit Jeremy's website here