The Grand Fishing Adventure S03E01
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🦄
CreativityTranscript
00:00This is the most epic underwater footage I've ever watched unfold in front of me.
00:05Prepare to immerse yourself into the underwater unknowns
00:09that obsess anglers across the globe.
00:11Ready?
00:12I'm fishing maniac Ali Hamidi.
00:15And we're off the underwater mark.
00:16And alongside our underwater experts,
00:22and my angling buddies,
00:23Unbelievable, feels like a very, very good fish.
00:26We'll expose underwater myths and truths.
00:30What is the answer?
00:31Want to see what baits carp love most?
00:34Now we're talking attraction.
00:36Experience tackle and tech in different scenarios.
00:42And witness the fine lines between success
00:47and failure.
00:48No, no, no.
00:50All is unearthed in the underwater grand fishing adventure.
00:57We got ourselves a piggy underwater.
01:11It was March.
01:12I was in France and on my way to meet the team.
01:16Yes, we're on the way to do some underwater filming.
01:19I was traveling south to a serene village 50 kilometers from Reims.
01:26The destination was a lake boasting big carp, but equally as important,
01:31a water with great clarity.
01:33The venue, Chase Lakes, a 12-acre gravel pit with around 250 carp,
01:40from pristine stockies up to 70-pound beasts.
01:44The mission here was to try and catch at least one carp in front of our underwater cameras,
01:49with just seven days to do it.
01:51We'd arrived.
01:52The water was looking gin clear and I hooked up with our underwater dive specialist.
01:58Come on, brother.
01:59My man.
02:00We're gonna do it.
02:01And then my fishing partner for this trip,
02:04the man with the brightest teeth in angling, rocked up.
02:07Here he is for his debut.
02:09Go on, son. I'm already rolling.
02:11They're all here.
02:14I've been carp fishing for 30-odd years now,
02:17but this was my first underwater project.
02:21To say I was excited was an understatement.
02:24It was straight down to work getting base camp set up,
02:27including the mission control tent and all underwater tech.
02:31Here's Lukey, setting up the live cams.
02:36Look at this.
02:38Camp is coming together lovely.
02:41Here's my home.
02:42Prep went on deep into the evening.
02:45Well, for most, anyway.
02:47Just watching the water, mate.
02:48But the underwater cameras wouldn't actually go in until sunrise,
02:52when the serious business could really start.
02:55Being March, the sun rose around 6.30am,
03:03and then our first job was to get our eye in the sky airborne
03:07to see if we could locate some carp to give us some ideas
03:11to where to place the underwater cameras.
03:15We're looking for where the bulk of the fish could be
03:17to find a spot where they're obviously residing.
03:20It all changes when you start going out there
03:22and making commotion, putting lines in.
03:24But currently, with no lines in the lake,
03:26this is where the fish are, okay?
03:29Actually, it's perfect because this is gravel.
03:32This is a big stone and they're all...
03:34So it's like a feature in open water?
03:36Yeah, with at least 20 carp.
03:38Yeah, wow, look at that.
03:39Wow, look at that.
03:41Yeah, that's nice, mate.
03:43They're moving a little bit, aren't they?
03:44Yeah.
03:45But they obviously like that little area.
03:47When the first underwater camera went in,
03:50I started to realise that the planning and the size of these projects was massive
03:57and the pressure really started to build.
03:59I didn't want to let anybody down.
04:02We had two cameras that could be viewed live from the control tent.
04:06Ru kept an eye from there whilst Luke and I placed the first in open water,
04:10where we'd spotted all the carp on the drone, although this was a bit of a gamble.
04:16It really is a huge disturbance to the carp's environment
04:20when you're putting in underwater cameras with a diver.
04:24And then when you start putting them into open water areas,
04:26you haven't got that sort of protection of foliage and snags.
04:31So it could be catastrophic.
04:33Would the fish return like we would see or had seen on the drone?
04:38Only time would tell.
04:39The camera is in.
04:42Very murky at the moment.
04:43Luke's staring up the bottom.
04:45The second live cam we decided to put on a snaggy margin to the right of our swim.
05:00Carp love structure.
05:02They feel safer.
05:03And this area had undercuts below the bank within the tree roots.
05:07And we even spotted carp chilling there as Luke placed the camera.
05:11Right, so cam two is gone in.
05:15And this one's staying a lot clearer.
05:17It looks a lot more gravelly over there.
05:20Around both the live cams, we spread bait in long strips.
05:24A mix of all sorts, what I call the buffet theory.
05:27A bit of everything to encourage the carp in and then hopefully to feed.
05:33It wasn't long before we had the first signs of inquisitive carp on camera.
05:38He didn't get his head down or pay any attention to the bait, but they are there.
05:44More carp appeared minutes later on the other live camera on the margin spot.
05:49Three minutes and we have seen common.
05:52There's two.
05:54Carp page is going to be full.
05:57I just couldn't believe how quick the fish moved back onto the spot after all the commotion.
06:03But were they going to feed or not was the big question.
06:07That's a big dog.
06:09Oh, big mirror.
06:10Roo was keeping research notes on the positive early activity.
06:14Whilst Luke and I placed a third camera in open water.
06:18We called this a spy camera as it couldn't be viewed live.
06:21Instead it had to be retrieved after several hours and viewed retrospectively.
06:26Basically like carp VAR.
06:28A second spy cam was placed along the same margin as the live cam.
06:32Now the serious job of research could begin in earnest.
06:36I can hear some excitement already from the shorelines.
06:39There's this big mirror.
06:40Big mirror what keeps coming in.
06:42You've got to start naming them though.
06:43You've got to start giving them names.
06:45Yeah.
06:45Otherwise, you've got otherwise.
06:47Yeah, yeah.
06:48Big common, big mirror, big mirror, big common.
06:50No, yeah, well they're coming regular.
06:52All right.
06:52It was quite a good looking mirror.
06:54Quite big, quite tall, quite muscular.
06:56So Luke.
06:57Luke.
06:57Yeah, Luke the mirror.
06:58Luke the mirror.
06:59I'll have that.
07:00Yeah.
07:01There.
07:01This is Luke.
07:02Let's have a look.
07:03I think that's Luke.
07:04It keeps coming from that tree.
07:06Big Luke lives under the tree.
07:08Oh, here comes Luke's mate.
07:09It's that common.
07:11It's the other side.
07:12Little, isn't it?
07:12Yeah, little.
07:14Little common.
07:16What are we going to call that?
07:17Ian Botham the common.
07:18Ian Botham.
07:19Cricket back common.
07:20It ain't actually much of a cricket.
07:21He's got a bit of a belly on it.
07:23He and both are mentors.
07:26So you've got two cameras that give us a constant barometer of their feeding mood
07:31and they're in different areas of the lake.
07:32So if they, if we've got them feeding on both cameras, you've got a good sense that
07:37the bait that's out there is of interest and they fancy some grub.
07:42Now we have a day of studying.
07:47See if anything feeds.
07:48So far we've only seen one carp drift past on the open water live cam.
07:5399% of the action had been on the marginal snaggy spot but nothing had fed.
07:59Here it comes, here it comes.
08:01Here it comes, gills are going, blowing nicely.
08:04Oh interesting, look at that.
08:06Oh I love it.
08:07Looking straight at the lens.
08:10It's a common, decent one that.
08:12E.T.
08:13Oh here comes another two common.
08:17Oh it's feeding, it's feeding.
08:18Go on, go on, go on.
08:21Oh it had a mouthful.
08:22That's the first one feeding whilst I was filming on my phone.
08:25Ian Bowford takes a bite.
08:27Oh that's eating, Ian Bowford from the Commons eating.
08:30Oh yes.
08:32The spread of bait we thought was key, not creating a danger zone and it was important
08:38to top up the spots regularly to keep them fresh and hopefully the carp interested.
08:44There we go, got more bait coming out onto the open water cam now.
08:49See that all falling down beautifully.
08:52Yeah, spread nicely.
08:54Ah bonjour Lukey.
08:55By lunchtime carp traffic slowed so we topped up both live cam spots with bait for when they returned.
09:02This carp lull was expected as being early spring and carp being cold blooded they tend to not feed
09:08in the brightest hottest part of the day and visit the upper layers to warm up instead.
09:12With just two hours of daylight remaining the open water spot stayed void of carp
09:17but the snaggy margin suddenly came alive again.
09:21Little common has a mouthful.
09:25Ian Bowford.
09:26Yeah.
09:27I don't think it was.
09:28It was this one.
09:29It was this one.
09:29It's a steady one.
09:31Come alive innit.
09:34During late winter and early spring you tend to get short feeding windows
09:38and now the fish were starting to gain a bit of confidence
09:42but the interesting thing was now the rigs were about to go in how would they respond.
09:47The open water spot there were so many carp there earlier but with the disturbance of Luke
09:52the camera being visible it had gone dead.
09:55Together with no cover would they return.
09:58Luke had swapped out the two spy cameras at around 2pm and now for the first time we'd get to see what
10:05was happening subsurface on these spots.
10:08So this is the left hand.
10:11Left hand spot.
10:12Yeah.
10:12So this is an area which is still a little bit open water but it's in a corner of a lake isn't it.
10:18Come on then.
10:19Show me what we're going to see on this camera.
10:21Okay.
10:22So they've come in.
10:25They're cruising over.
10:27Was that the best clip?
10:29No, no, let's go to a different clip.
10:31Biggest stamp of fish aren't they on this spot.
10:33Yeah, definitely.
10:34Cruising over.
10:35Oh, look at that.
10:37Okay.
10:38That is a spot I would say to have some sort of little ziggy on there.
10:42But go on.
10:42Let's go again.
10:44Right.
10:44So this is the other spy cam under the trees.
10:47Look at that one's eyeballs.
10:49Right.
10:49Next clip.
10:50Oh, we sped this one up for us.
10:53Coming in and out.
10:54No feeding really.
10:56Smaller stamp of fish.
10:57Smaller.
10:58Brat pack.
10:59We were slowly piecing together critical information from the underwater cameras,
11:04including feeding patterns and even fish size.
11:09So that side is showing the bigger fish on that little glimpse we've had on that spy cam though,
11:15isn't it?
11:16And when that drone was up this morning, they looked bigger, didn't they?
11:21Yeah.
11:21And critically, critically, there's one really, really important factor about that.
11:26Really important.
11:28It's the furthest away from your teeth.
11:29It was the end of the first day of our carp underwater research project in France.
11:45The cameras were now off and Luke and I went out into the darkness to top up the spots with bait,
11:52drizzling a mix of boilies, maggots, tiger nuts, pellets and chopworm all around the areas with
11:58underwater cameras to hopefully keep the carp interested.
12:02Oh, look at that.
12:03Then to our surprise, we spotted some right by the boat.
12:08In the darkness, out of nowhere, these carps start appearing and this is all happening on the far margin to the left of our swim.
12:16Oh, that's a cheese, that one. That's a big one.
12:18This kind of intel can be priceless, so we knew we had to pursue this area the following day.
12:24At first light the next morning, we switched on the two live cams to check out the state of play.
12:32Oh, mate, I can't believe you're turning the cameras on to that.
12:39I did put quite a bit of bait in there in the hours of darkness last night, right?
12:43I've got a feeling they might have left that area overnight and not stayed there in the numbers and
12:48now they're coming back. Now the light's coming for shelter and sanctuary, you know, because on our
12:54other live cam, there's a bit of bait there but there was probably more bait there yesterday,
13:00wasn't there, or not? Yeah, yeah, yeah, more bait yesterday. Yeah, so they're fed there at night,
13:06but not in the daytime at all. Look, they're feeding right in front of our eyes here, Ru.
13:12It was time to get this show on the road and get the baited rigs in the drink to see if we could
13:17achieve our goal of catching a carp in front of an underwater camera. Ru opted for a lock hook
13:23wafter rig known as a medusa. Also, a big bunch of maggots on a long hair that lays flat on the deck
13:29with the bait separated from the hook. That's my go-to winter and spring rig. I have caught so many
13:36carp on this rig, including my PB in February at £71. But seeing how it performed on an underwater
13:45camera was really nerve-wracking. He's a boy, isn't he? A human bait boat. I'm going to see a diver
13:53appear any minute. Oh, it's a carp's tail, not Luke. It's a carp. A carp's spooking. That means Luke's in town.
14:00Luke was going to place all of our rigs into position in front of the cameras by hand.
14:06Too far from the camera. If you can hear me underwater, bring it six inches towards us.
14:12Good boy, Luke. You can hear us underwater, Luke, because you are Luke. I can hear the shouts already.
14:19That's cheating. But you've got to remember, this is a big research project. Everything needed to be
14:25precise and on point. And if it were you, you'd do the same. Get in there, rigging position. And Luke,
14:32here's me underwater. Oh, here comes the grub. Continuing the buffet theory,
14:39the mix of free bait was spread all around the rig to attract the carp, but to also draw them to
14:45the hook bait. He's done a nice job there. First rig locked, loaded and live. We held fire on the
14:53second live cam in open water because due to the lack of carp traffic, we felt it needed more research
14:59in case we needed to change the camera's position to a different area of the lake. I was using
15:05spring-loaded hooking devices, boilie paste around the lead, lock hook spinner rigs with half a pop-up
15:11boilie topped with maggots, all drenched in almond detractors. Serious times. Final inspection's done.
15:19But before we had a chance to get my first hook bait in the water, it's Luke. Luke is in the facility.
15:33Whilst Luke the lofty mirror carp mooch very close to Roo's hook bait, Luke the diver placed my first rig
15:40on the right-hand margin, the same bank as Roo's live cam. The second spy cam and rig was positioned in
15:48the clear area near the far-left margin where we'd seen the carp the previous night during our
15:53baiting-up mission. Three rigs now deployed in front of three underwater cameras. Roo's live cam 2 on
16:02the right margin was already showing some positive signs. Yep, on the bait, that's the feeder. First
16:09feed. As Ali has his breakfast, the carp also correlate to my dietary behaviours.
16:16Then, things started to happen on the open water live cam spot.
16:22Oh, live cam. Oh, I'm a live cam. I'm a live cam.
16:27Oh. Camera one. Camera one. A big load just swim through. Jesus Christ. How many?
16:36There's a dozen, wouldn't there?
16:39Would you commit your rod to a little mini-zig on that rod, just for bants?
16:42Well, Spot's not doing anything else, really. We haven't had it fed down. I've already
16:47saved. Do we give it a zig-y-zig? Well, see if any more crew's past it. That seemed like a bit
16:53of a coast. Oh, no, there's another one coming up the back. Look. Oh, wow. Oh, that's a good... Oh,
16:59three. Oh, look. Another three. Wow. What's the time of day as well? Take a look.
17:02Seven loads of carp. Cam one. Then, 40 minutes later. Oh, yeah. There you go. And there's one,
17:08two, and one. And one, yeah. A little brat pack fish. Cam one, so the open water swim.
17:15Which has no rig on it at the moment. No, and we've still got quite a lot of bait, really,
17:20from yesterday. Yeah. But we've had lots of shoals moving over that spot, so I think we'd bang a zig on
17:27that. Shall I go and knock up a zig while you watch that? Because your rig's in the water. I will...
17:31Yeah. Yeah? Yeah, I'll let you do all the work. All right, mate. It's all good.
17:35But I only managed one foot outside the control tent. Oh, here we go. Steed in. Oh,
17:40hook bait. Hook bait. Hook bait. Oh. What happened? Did it take it? Did it take you? No, it was on it.
17:52Yeah. It didn't. No, it didn't. It was that debris. It touched my hook bait. It's close,
17:59but it just didn't suck it up. Gutted. Oh, well. Close. Won't be the last time,
18:07have we hoped today? No. Touch wood. The odd carp was still drifting over the open water live camera,
18:14so Luke swam out a zig rig, a two-foot monofilament hook length, and a floating fake bug on a lock hook.
18:21This would sit up off the bottom, looking like an insect suspended in the water
18:26that hopefully a passing carp would instinctively schnaffle.
18:34Oh, oh, oh, oh. Oh, it's near the zig. It's wave the zig. Wave the zig. Love it.
18:40Oh, wow. That actually spooked off the zig a bit, I think. Good call, I think, on the zig, guys.
18:46But only time would tell if it worked. The action did slow down over the middle part of the day,
18:52the same as yesterday, so I took the chance to review some spy cam footage.
18:59And amazingly, what I'm about to watch, you wouldn't, you know, it blows my mind sometimes.
19:05We're only there. That's where the two cameras are, spy cam, live cam. So it's fascinating. So,
19:12right, let's watch clip one. I think that's actually Luke, the carp, that was previously
19:19on the live cam bush a lot, and now it appears to have changed home. Right, that's one clip.
19:25Next clip. Big fish again. Two big fish. Is that Luke again? Oh, wow. Look, the paste on the lead.
19:36So I put the paste on it. It's something I've always wanted to see. It's something I do in my
19:39fishing a lot. And just a fish swimming past it is just set off a load of particles from the lead
19:46all coming up off the bottom. That is really good to see, because I think that's a plus point. Oh, wow.
19:54Oh, my God. Oh, my God. That actually got close to my hook bait.
20:01Sorry, I'm going to have to watch that back. How close did that get? I'm just slowing this down.
20:08Wow. That fish is millimetres from actually the hook bait.
20:16Call that as a close shave. It blows my mind how close we get without even realising.
20:20Here we go again. Look at that. Look at this head. Oh, my God. Look at that. That's a big carp, isn't it?
20:31Ladies and gents, that looks massive. That is a monster of a carp.
20:35Around 4pm, carp started to visit Roo's margin live cam again.
20:44Go on. Go on. Go on. Go on. Go on. Go on. Go on.
20:50Oh, my nose turned away. Oh, that is close. That is close to catching a 10-pounder.
21:00Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Go on. Go on. Right.
21:05One more mouthful. All right. Go on. Go on.
21:08Nah.
21:12How **** is that hook bait?
21:16It was at that moment I realised my super rig wasn't that super.
21:21Same common. Yeah.
21:23Common. Ignoring hook bait.
21:26Asterix.
21:27Starting to realise just a ball of maggots that are dead is not that great.
21:37Well, with him in my ear, I thought a change of hook bait was on the cards.
21:41The lights soon began to fade and camera quality started depleting,
21:45but there was still just enough time for our first nibble on camera.
21:51Oh. Oh, oh.
21:53What's that? It spooked. You've got.
21:59Yeah. It spooked, didn't it? It spooked, mate.
22:02Oh, I thought it just. Oh, my God. Is that still recording?
22:06It's still recording, yeah. That was your long air.
22:08I wonder if it grabbed your long air and mugged you off.
22:10No, it didn't. No, no, no way. The lead didn't move.
22:13No. Yeah, mate, if I grabbed that long air and pulled that, 100%.
22:18How about the lead didn't move, though, did it?
22:20It's a lead. No. It just completed.
22:23It looked like he had a bite.
22:24It was time for a VAR playback.
22:31Gutted. Confused. That totally blew my mind.
22:35What on earth just happened?
22:37I thought you got a bite. I thought it came in, got nailed, and that was that.
22:43It's moved it, though, hasn't it? Look. Look at the angle of where the hookbait is now.
22:48Or is that all it? I have no idea. You've been staring at it all day.
22:51Five days now remained. With limited time, no bites between us, and observing just light feeding from the carp,
23:07we decided to slightly scale down our hookbaits, but also make them more visual, too.
23:12Could it make a difference?
23:14Looking on camera now, it's standing out like a cherry on the top. Absolutely bang on.
23:19To be honest, if it hadn't have been for the cameras, the long hair rig would have stayed there.
23:25But I decided to put higher track pop-ups out there, back on the dance floor.
23:31Come on, the carp.
23:33I went with a bright almond pop-up with fake maggots on my right-hand margin rod on the spy cam.
23:39For my left-hand spy cam, it was similar, but the pop-up was topped with worms instead.
23:44Both hookbaits sat up nicely off the deck. How could a carp resist?
23:50Spy cam footage filmed yesterday afternoon also backed up our reasoning for the hookbait switch.
23:56Well, I mean, I'll roll it to show you what I saw last night.
23:59Once we'd cut and we'd finished for the evening and the rods are coming,
24:03some of the footage and some of the fish we saw come on the other spy cam was quite incredible.
24:08There was some really, really big fish coming and they were feeding coming along from the back.
24:14Not a lot. Again, little touches to the bottom, little mouthfuls.
24:19But the one thing Ru and I both observed
24:22is these fish don't seem to be sucking with any vigour or feeding hard.
24:31And that's one of the other things I try to tell people. A little bit of buoyancy in your hookbait.
24:36So if they do just suck a little bit, the weight of the hook is negated.
24:40So the whole lot flies into their mouth quicker.
24:43So if they mouth it and they just go a little suck, that hook could go back and catch them.
24:50So we've got in effect four different heights of pop-ups with different hookbaits out there,
24:56different attractors. There's a lot going on, but it's interesting.
25:02Now is a day of watching and waiting. Would the pop-ups tempt a carp into taking the bait?
25:08However, just a couple drifted over the open water live cam spot all morning.
25:14Not interested in the hookbait whatsoever.
25:17All the action was on the live cam margin and it was proper edge of the seat stuff.
25:22Oh, oh, go on.
25:24No, no, it's not even tough. No, no, just before.
25:28Just suck. Calm down. I'll tell you. I'll tell you when I...
25:32Calm down.
25:33I felt we were getting closer to that holy grail bite on camera.
25:37Go on. Go on. Go on. Go on.
25:41Hold next to it. Go on.
25:42Come on. Go on. Go for it.
25:46Oh, you're Lukey.
25:49He touched it.
25:53I can't take any more.
25:55I can't take any more.
25:59We still hadn't managed to pick up.
26:01So next we experimented with different amounts of free bait on each spot in an attempt to stimulate a bite.
26:07Lukey is currently raining it over the pop-up as if we've dropped it out by a bait boat.
26:13I wonder if they come in on that.
26:14Oh, I hope so.
26:16Your big pop-up on the top of it.
26:18You see your pop-up still, can't you?
26:19Yeah, yeah, yeah.
26:21We even tried to emulate fish in a solid PVA bag on the other live cam.
26:26So free bait all tight around the hook bait.
26:29Now Roo's hook bait is right in the middle of a clump of bait.
26:33That's a nice trap.
26:35Yeah.
26:36But our plan didn't pan out as intended, with Perch just having a party on the open water spot and then on the margin.
26:47Oh, you are joking me.
26:51A common, completely confused Roo's.
26:54All that work.
26:58As an angler you think you've got this lovely tightly baiting spot and then without you even knowing,
27:03this can happen.
27:04And essentially you're fishing with just a single hook bait.
27:08With time ticking and no feeding whatsoever on the open water live camera,
27:13once it was dark we decided to reposition it to a new area.
27:17So we're going to be moving that over.
27:19But this far margin over here, which you can't see at the moment because it's pitch black,
27:24but it's going near to the other live cam because there's a lot of fish traffic up and down, up and down.
27:29Moving it at night would mean less disturbance over the camera spots in the daytime,
27:33maximising the hours available for filming and also hopefully our chances.
27:39There he is.
27:40One more lot of effort.
27:43This was also about learning and gathering info on the carp's habitat in these cold conditions
27:48with a fast ticking clock.
27:51Four days to go and further scaling down of our hook baits,
27:55he trimmed down pop-up with fake casters for me to a newly moved live cam.
28:00And for Roo's live cam, he'd switch to a small boilie and a mini pop-up known as a snowman due to the way it sits.
28:08Slightly smaller hook baits also went out on the spy cams too,
28:12with the slight scaling down do the trick and entice a bite on camera.
28:16Another change was afoot too, but now from mother nature herself, the wind had got up and had changed
28:23direction and was now pushing nicely towards the bank with both the live cams.
28:28Carp often follow a new wind and it also helps to add a little more oxygen in the water, so something in our favour.
28:35Oh, this one coming with a bit of intent.
28:38They're moving much faster now though, far more aggressively.
28:41They're far more stimulated at wind changing.
28:45Stirred them up a bit, a little bit of increase in oxygen.
28:49Here's a cormon.
28:50Hello.
28:51Hello there, how you doing?
28:53Things felt good as the fish traffic increased on the two live cameras.
29:00This is mad, isn't it? Both of us.
29:02Yeah, two cameras.
29:04And again, they're feeding on.
29:06But look, they're touching down on both cameras as we speak.
29:10I think he's just mouthed my lead.
29:12Look, he just ate some of my lead.
29:16As the day progressed, Roo and I became absolutely glued to the screens in anticipation of hopefully
29:22that first bite on camera.
29:25Suddenly turned into a really good film at the cinema, aren't it?
29:27It could be one of those sort of hangover films, you know, where you've been for a night out
29:36and all you want to do on a Sunday is just veg on the couch, eat crap food...
29:43And watch two other...
29:45And watch...
29:45Watch two geezers eating crap food.
29:47Eat crap food!
29:51But it wasn't long before the action movie became more of a horror film.
29:55Oh, oh, oh.
29:57Oh, that's the line. That's the line.
30:01The carp just kept ignoring my hook bait.
30:04This one's going to take it.
30:06This one's going to... No.
30:07Oh, my God.
30:09I was really starting to get frustrated.
30:12Why aren't they going on that hook bait?
30:14Then on my life, Cam...
30:16Go on, take me hook bait.
30:18Go on, take me hook bait.
30:19No.
30:20No?
30:21They were showing slightly more interest in my hook baits.
30:23That definitely had more attractors in them.
30:26Go on, you want it, don't you?
30:27You want it, you little musculos.
30:30Oh, that's the sort of attention we want to a hook bait.
30:34Roo then went for a hook bait switch after I talked him into trying a small bait or packed,
30:39full of attraction, and caged stuff with paste, luncheon meat and chop worm.
30:44Would they show more interest now?
30:45Go on, go on.
30:47Going straight for the bait orb.
30:48Going straight for it.
30:49Oh, he spat it out.
30:51Went straight for it though, boy.
30:54They're talking attractors.
30:57Went straight for it, spat it straight out.
31:00Now we're talking attraction.
31:03Now we're talking attraction is what I'm talking about.
31:06First thing it went for in the swim.
31:09That's where we need to be.
31:11All right, Mr Smug, calm down.
31:13It was a positive step forward, but we still hadn't converted.
31:17I thought you were away, didn't you?
31:18I don't know what to say to me.
31:19I thought you were away.
31:22Yeah, I thought we were away.
31:23I thought that was it.
31:24We're in the game though.
31:25We've got a hook bait.
31:27We've got a hook bait they're going to take.
31:29Well, we thought we could be making progress,
31:31but then we reviewed some spy cam footage from the far left margin spot.
31:36A big old carp kept returning to the spot,
31:39but it was really picky in the little food items,
31:41ignoring the bait orb and hire tracked hook bait that I had on.
31:45So some serious food for four overnight for Ru and I,
31:48we'd have to come up with hook baits to match how they were feeding.
31:51What was the answer?
31:56Just three days left to crack the code or we'd fail our mission.
32:02A new dawn, another new hook bait philosophy.
32:06We just couldn't ignore all this evidence.
32:08We decided to scale down even further.
32:10A tiny fake escargot with a foam insert soaked in almond detractor with a maggot topper,
32:16went out on both my spy cam and live cam.
32:19Picked the bones out of that.
32:21Ru scaled down two on his live cam.
32:23A small piece of foam and two fake casters, which sat on the deck nicely,
32:27ready to fly up into a carp's mouth at the slightest suck.
32:32We're going to see now whether these fish come in and want to eat anything.
32:36And if they do, whether the hook bait gets picked out or gets completely Ian Beeled.
32:41Our two spy cam rods also went out with smaller hook baits.
32:45And as time was ticking, we also added a third spy cam
32:48and a rig to an open water area we'd not yet tried.
32:53We've gone from four rods in the lake to five rods in the lake.
32:57The story of the day thus far.
33:00As the day progressed, my live cam had just the odd carp drift in
33:04and with no signs of any feeding.
33:06But just 20 yards away, Ru's live cam was a different story.
33:10Gone, gone, gone.
33:14Mate, it is so, so much more confident on that spot.
33:18He is not noticing the hook bait.
33:20It's going right next to it.
33:22Today's the day.
33:25The air pressure had now dropped.
33:27It started to drizzle and it felt what we anglers call carpy.
33:31Apart from Ronnie Cray, my live cam was quiet.
33:34But Luke had more positive spy cam footage from the spot
33:37that had showed the big carp feeding yesterday.
33:40We've got very big resident fish living over there.
33:43And the good thing is, it's coming in each day, feeding, feeding, getting away with it.
33:47The good thing is, from my perspective,
33:50is that it's not like the rig has been in its mouth or anything.
33:54It's just not taking a hook bait.
33:58Look at you, watch your screen.
33:59I'm watching that.
34:00Is that that mirror or is that the common?
34:03This is the mirror, yeah.
34:04What are we putting that weight-wise?
34:06Big, big, massive fish, yeah.
34:0960 pounder.
34:10Bare minimum.
34:12That would be mega if we could catch a carp of that size on an underwater camera.
34:17Then all eyes were back on Ru's live cam where the carp
34:20finally seemed to be gaining confidence around his hook bait.
34:23Go on, go on, go on, go on.
34:26That sucked it up.
34:31And completely blown you out.
34:33The carp feeding on tiny food items makes them really hard to catch.
34:37But this was the most positive we'd seen.
34:40Right, that's it.
34:41Go on, go on, go on.
34:42No.
34:44All I was thinking, was I ever going to get a pickup?
34:48Surely it had to happen soon.
34:51Ru's hook bait then seemed to catch a carp's eye.
34:55Was this going to be the moment?
34:57Close, close, close.
34:58Are you recording?
34:59Yeah, yeah, yeah.
35:00Go on.
35:02Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
35:04Yeah, you got it.
35:05It's on.
35:06It's on.
35:07Yeah.
35:08It's on.
35:09Come on.
35:10Come on, Ru.
35:11Come on, Ru.
35:12Come on, Ru.
35:19On our fourth day of underwater filming and fishing in France, Ru had finally got our first
35:25bite on camera on camera.
35:26Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
35:29Yeah, yeah, yeah.
35:30Yeah, you got it.
35:32It's on.
35:33And the team's excitement levels are just blown off the roof.
35:38Come on.
35:39Come on, Ru.
35:40I'm going to do some filming in your face.
35:44No.
35:44So you've got some...
35:45I'm trying to stop it going back to snag and I'm not giving it any.
35:49Just get that tip under and keep your line.
35:51Keep your line down underwater.
35:54That's it.
35:54Get the angle.
35:56You're going to win.
36:07Cut off?
36:09Yeah, cut off.
36:13All that effort, all that time, and then to lose it, I was absolutely devastated.
36:23Oh, my God, man.
36:26I really felt for Ru. I knew how much that carp would have meant to him.
36:30And on a similar project many years ago, I lost my first carp underwater too.
36:36Just sat there, four days, first take.
36:40Today was the most active though. We found the hook bait what worked.
36:45Really small, small little caster, tiny little bit of foam, had a couple of fish gummit
36:51and then that one, it took it.
36:55But, yeah, that was my worst fishing moment to date.
37:04We'll go again.
37:05Spirits had been seriously dampened in camp, but we had to keep going and build on the positives.
37:17That's nice. Well done, Luke.
37:19After the commotion of the lost carp and subsequent diver disturbance, both live cams on the right
37:25margin went really quiet. But what we didn't realise at this stage was my spy cam spot with my
37:32small fake snail and maggot hook bait out to the left margin was getting some serious attention from
37:38the same big mirror that we'd seen frequently visiting for the last couple of days.
37:44It then totally locked its sights onto my hook bait.
37:53The rod going off totally blindsided me as we obviously hadn't seen the footage yet.
37:58Bye.
38:02Yep.
38:02Full panic setting.
38:04Get the life jacket. Get the life jacket. Get in the boat.
38:08There is a god.
38:10All the team had to work fast. I had to get in the boat and out to the fish ASAP as there were
38:16plenty of snags out where I'd hooked it. Luke got in the water rapido to follow me out,
38:22armed with an underwater camera to hopefully capture some of the fight.
38:26This is amazing. Two bites in one day. Lovely.
38:34Nick Oster director grabbed a camera and legged it around the lake for another angle.
38:39Not a bad turn of pace for a 50 year old.
38:41All right Luke people.
38:45Unbelievable.
38:46It felt a decent carp and was putting up a dogged fight.
38:50Come on baby. Old Nick's falling in the reed over there.
38:56Start the bus.
38:58Yeah.
39:04I had to make sure the line didn't get tangled around Luke.
39:07Come on.
39:08That would be a disaster.
39:09I'm telling him about a bit.
39:11It was now starting to tire and it looked like the huge mirror that had been constantly visiting my spot.
39:17I just had to land it.
39:19As I grabbed the net it made another deep powerful lunge.
39:23My heart was in my mouth.
39:27Deep breath.
39:28Deep breath.
39:43It only takes a second ladies and gentlemen.
39:45Luke give me your fist brother.
39:47Give me your fist.
39:53Success at last especially after constantly tweaking and adjusting
39:58to catch that wily carp that had been feeding on the spot.
40:02Well done.
40:03We're in it to win it.
40:04Well done crew.
40:05That's how quickly ladies and gentlemen you can go from a team feeling like
40:11housing to feeling good again.
40:14Life and times of underwater filming.
40:16Oh mate.
40:17Made up now.
40:19Made up.
40:20I was so relieved.
40:22After me losing one just an hour earlier.
40:26Fishing can be such an emotional roller coaster.
40:30Just how big was this mirror we've been seeing the last few days?
40:3435.4.
40:35Let's call it that.
40:3635.4.
40:38We're off the mark.
40:39We're off the mark.
40:40The only interesting thing is we're now able to judge that lens on that camera.
40:44We thought that fish was possibly 70 pounds.
40:50But it wasn't.
40:52And boys all I want now.
40:54Go on just give us a little kiss on each cheek.
40:57There's nothing honestly.
41:04So much data.
41:06We're learning so much doing this type of underwater study research.
41:10Luke.
41:12The greatest human bait boat on planet earth.
41:16Ru is magical eh?
41:18Oh it's unreal.
41:18Unreal.
41:19It only takes a second to get a bite.
41:22Escargot.
41:23To catch a carp in front of an underwater camera feels about 10 times harder than a normal
41:32fishing situation due to the added commotion, cables and of course the cameras themselves.
41:38But we've done it and now wanted more.
41:41It was the penultimate day and from the morning onwards both live cams, for whatever reason,
41:47were virtually carp-less.
41:50And most that did drift into view were just tiny stockies.
41:53I reckon that's about seven pounds.
41:56We also played back the morning footage from the three spy cams.
42:01Even they showed minimal carp traffic with no signs of feeding.
42:05Well not from carp anyway.
42:08But the afternoon spy cams were still out in the lake recording.
42:11So what we didn't know at the time was that mine was surrounded by tench on a feeding frenzy.
42:21Oh.
42:26I think it's a fish on.
42:28I have no idea what this is.
42:29It doesn't feel very big.
42:31What is it?
42:31It's a tench.
42:33It's a tench.
42:36There you go.
42:36A Judi Dench tench.
42:39My first ever caught in an underwater camera.
42:42Beautiful fish.
42:43When I was growing up, I literally used to just dream about these red eyes, teddy bear eyes.
42:52They are one of the most stunning freshwater species out there.
42:56After no more action, with only one day remaining and in the name of research, we decided that
43:03Roo would leave his rods out during the hours of darkness just to see if he could catch one
43:09off the spot.
43:10Plus, we also had a secret weapon for this covert mission.
43:14The good thing is, with those teeth, we can see anything in the dark.
43:18Go on.
43:18Let, let.
43:19Let's say, yeah.
43:20Oh, God.
43:20Fuck.
43:21Nice one, Al.
43:22But the angler in me was so desperate just to put a fish on the bank.
43:27No underwater camera.
43:29Let's see if I can still catch a carp.
43:31He's away.
43:37I haven't watered a fish in so much in all my life.
43:41His name is Roo, he's got a big carp.
43:44It's a common and if you go back a little bit further, that common carp is now Roo Dog's common
43:55carp and he's off the mark.
43:57And this man has struck the gold.
44:04So he could still actually catch him.
44:06We safely retain the carp ready for an inspection in the imminent morning light.
44:14Our final day in France and time to check out Roo's well-deserved
44:18covert consolation common carp.
44:2330!
44:25What, I'm going to give you 34 on the button?
44:27There we go.
44:28Go on, boy.
44:30It might not have been on a live cam, but cameras were off.
44:36It just proves to you, or it proves to me, how much harder it is to get that live bite.
44:43Yeah, it's no coincidence, mate.
44:44The technology, for what we learn, is brilliant, but it is the hardest set of circumstances to try
44:50to catch a carp with all those concoctions and cables and divers.
44:56But the rewards are there and this is almost a part of the piecing the jigsaw together to show
45:01people the tactics we've been using, what we've evolved to throughout the session is a good way
45:07to fish on this particular lake, in this particular situation and I'm really glad you're walking away
45:12with an absolute belter and there's still a little miniscule time to go.
45:18A little window to go.
45:19Unfortunately, we didn't manage to catch any more carp, but it was still mission accomplished.
45:24We came here to catch a carp in front of the underwater cameras on a venue we'd never seen before,
45:31very little intel, very little time, we worked hard, we rolled the dice and we succeeded and
45:38every ounce of the information gained can be used for future underwater projects.
45:43Yeah, yeah, yeah, go on.
45:46Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
45:47Of course, I'm still gutted I didn't land a carp on an underwater camera.
45:52Oh.
45:53But on the flip side, I did catch a common and that did make me happy.
45:59This fishing trip was definitely the biggest eye-opener I have ever had.
46:05It was an absolute honour to fish with Rue, a proper lovely guy.
46:09Let's not forget about those Nash's.
46:34Right.
46:36Nice to meet you.
46:37Right.
46:37Thanks for watching here.
46:41've got plenty.
46:44I have plenty.
46:45Past Be grih.
46:46About two.
46:47спрос.
46:47Yes, sir.
46:49Here.
46:49Yes.
46:49I'll be good.
46:53In y'all Call 630, by 1630, by 1660, by 1660, by 1660, by 1670, the
47:00tay.
47:01Again, the turn on itself.