Fishing Impossible s01e01 Episode Script
Episode 1
'This is Fishing Impossible.
We're three fishing fanatics on an epic adventure.
We're heading to some of the world's most extreme destinations to catch the most extraordinary fish.
But the creatures we're after don't make it easy, so we'll need to go to incredible lengths to catch the uncatchable.
This is Jay.
He's obsessed with free diving and spear fishing and is as tough as a nut.
' Course I am, I'm the Cornish man! 'This is Blowfish, a marine biologist.
' This is a vermilion rock cod.
'He likes to catch fish with his bare hands.
' Blimey, he's huge! Look at that! 'And I'm Charlie, the levelheaded one.
Levelheaded, that is, until I get a big bite.
' (CHUCKLES) Lashing down, man.
We're attached to something absolutely ginormous.
Whoa! 'I fish for salmon all over the UK but the holy grail for me has to be British Columbia in Canada.
Almost a million square kilometres of unspoilt wilderness rivers teeming with salmon and today, the location for a spectacular fishing trip.
Our journey will take us along the salmon's up-river route through British Columbia to our final destination, the Great Bear Rainforest.
There we're going to face the ultimate fishing challenge, attempting to catch salmon under the noses of grizzly bears.
But first, we're limbering up with some sea fishing in the very place our salmon started their epic journey, the Pacific Ocean.
' That's a nice boat.
That's a monster! Ah, Charlie boy, you have done well, mate.
'But what Blowfish doesn't know is that we're doing this like the locals.
Kayaks have been used by indigenous people here for centuries.
' Yeah! Let's go, boys! 'The rules are simple, biggest catch wins the day, loser cooks it for supper.
I'm confident my culinary skills won't be called upon tonight, especially as there's a novice in the ranks.
' Do I hold it in my left hand or my right hand? Whatever you feel comfortable doing, mate.
What, and now just, what, sit here? What's gonna happen? You'll know, man.
You'll feel a fish take the bait.
OK.
'Hundreds of thousands of salmon pass through here, but by now they're way up river, so we're going after their predators.
' We've got some nice fish down there.
There's halibut, lingcod.
Ancient fish, the old lingcod, mate.
'In true fishing style, it all kicks off at once.
' I'm in, I'm in, I'm in! He's on! Go on, son! Go on! Oh, no, no, no.
It came off.
Oh! Whoa, whoa, whoa! I've got one, I've got one! Well, reel him in then! What is that? What the hell do I do now? Yes, boy.
What do you reckon? Beautiful, beautiful.
Now this, this is a vermilion rock cod.
The thing about these guys is that he was pretty much dead when he came up.
Cos they've got a swim bladder, you pull them up faster than the swim bladder can empty, so you tend to kill them on the way up.
Still worth dispatching him properly, giving him an honourable death.
Are they good to eat? He will be so, so tasty.
'Decent looking fish, but I don't want to be cooking it, so I need to catch a bigger one.
' Are you on? Definitely.
Of course I am, I'm the Cornish man! I think I'm on as well! Get him up, boy! It's not a lazy man's sport, is it? Flippin' 'eck! Wow! Look at that! What you got? Yellow eye, my friend.
'The others are pulling fish out of the sea like magicians.
' That's another yellow eye rock cod.
'And I'm still waiting for my first catch.
' Damn! What have you got? That there, my friend, is a lingcod! Look at that! That's a beast! I'm well happy with that! Oh, well played, Jay.
Well played, man.
'This is gonna be hard to live down.
' Right, there's only one person that needs to catch a fish.
Yeah, that's Charlie.
'I can't deny, the unholy alliance of Blowfish and Jay is beginning to get just a bit annoying.
But then' Da-da-da-da-daaa! Yeah! That is a decent fish! 'At least I won't be leaving empty handed now.
Let's hope this is enough to win the day.
' Oh, look who it is.
You two have become like some little tag team today, haven't you? Someone needs to be bringing in the fish, mate, cos it ain't you.
Blimey, that's a nice fish.
Exactly.
Let's have a look.
Yellow eye rock cod.
So that's not as big as mine.
Let's see how big yours is? What? Cop hold of that, mate.
That's an absolute monster.
On the herring or the sardine? That was on the salmon, mate.
But Here we go.
Here we go.
Here we go.
It better be big! (GROANS) Look at that! Oh, it's close! You know what, boys? They're about the same.
(BLOWFISH GROANS) Shall we call it a day? Because I've heard lingcod's pretty good eating.
'OK, to be fair, the others did really have more fish than me.
So I've been lumbered with the job of cooking up today's catch.
Rock and lingcod barbequed with garlic, parsley and olive oil with some minted new potatoes.
' Get dishing.
Wahey, look at that.
Look at that! That's all right, lads, that, isn't it? B-E-A-U-tiful.
'Day Two in Canada, and we're on a mission to catch salmon from under the noses of grizzly bears.
Each year here, the salmon return in the hundreds of thousands to where they were born and then, having spawned, they die or get eaten.
Either way, their bodies become a key part of an amazing ecosystem.
Blowfish gives us the lowdown.
' The Pacific salmon run is the largest transfer of nutrients from ocean to land anywhere in the world.
You've got a fish feeding on different shrimps and fishes and molluscs and all this tasty stuff.
Then you're taking all those nutrients, all those minerals, and you're dropping that at the bottom of a giant pine tree.
It's incredible, isn't it? It's the best fertiliser you can get.
80% of the nutrients needed for these trees to grow come from the salmon.
80%? 80%.
Wow.
These are salmon forests.
'But the deeper we get, the more likely we are to meet bears.
So before we can road test our individual tactics, we need expert advice on how to snatch fish from under the grizzly's noses and live to tell the tale.
' Travelling in a group is good, stay nice and close.
And keep really aware of our surroundings, OK? I'm not going at the back, I'm going here.
'Holly Wilgress is a wilderness expert Handy to have around when you realise that British Columbia is home to more than 150,000 bears.
' Is that not a bear print? That's a bear print, yep.
It's bigger than my hand as well.
You've got the front paw print of a bear there and those are the three to four inch razor blades it has sticking up in front of its toes.
Are these claws retractable? No.
They're not retractable, no.
So any swipe, there's no Don't need to put their claws out, they're gonna get you whatever.
(CHUCKLES) 'OK, so now I'm getting worried.
What started out as a quest for salmon is rapidly turning into a quest for survival.
' At the moment, we're walking around and we're like All the time and we don't know what we're doing, so First off, most encounters are going to be quite passive and calm.
Often it's a bear defending its food, right, so if it has a carcass that it's feeding on.
A sow with cubs, if you surprise her she basically wants to neutralise the threat to her cubs.
So we just act calm, we watch the bear, we'll back away.
And if it continues towards you, what do you do then? With the grizzly bear, we want to stand our ground, right.
We don't want to run.
Oh, that's easier said than done! So you want to stand your ground and immediately deploy your bear spray as fast as you can.
And it needs to be used at very close distance, so within 30 feet.
You wanna aim slightly above their head, so it actually falls into their eyes and nasal passages and that's very effective in stopping a charge.
Have you ever had to do this yourself? I've had a few incidents with bears, most of them were when I was young and doing stupid things that I shouldn't have been.
Like fishing in bear infested waters.
Well, yeah.
Yeah.
(LAUGHS) 'Hmm Even more reason to work on our ingenious bear evasion strategies.
We're tracing the salmon's epic journey to their spawning grounds in the heart of the Great Bear Rainforest.
The salmon share the rivers with one of the biggest freshwater species in the world.
And Jay and I just can't resist the chance to try and catch one.
In the Fraser River, there's a beast of a fish that spends its 100-year lifespan getting fat off the millions of passing salmon.
It's one of the true monsters of the deep, the giant white sturgeon.
' Whoa, whoa, whoa! Get him in, Charlie! Yes, I knew it! Reel it up, reel it up, reel it up! (GROANS) Just keep it tight.
Oooh! He's a screamer! Grab that weight off, grab this weight off.
I can't stop him.
I can't stop him.
He's charging! He just keeps on taking line.
ALL: WHOA! (LAUGHS) I can't believe it, Charlie! 'It's definitely a white sturgeon and could be the biggest fish I've ever caught if I can land the beast.
' He's diving.
He's diving! He's strippin' again! Look at him go! (LAUGHS) Oh, my God! That's ridiculous, wow! The power in that fish! 'Sturgeon have been around for 100 million years and you can see why.
They're powerful fighters.
This one just doesn't seem to be tiring, no matter how many times I reel him in.
' Hold on, boy! (GROANS) OK, guys, he's coming up now.
Whoa! Oh look at the size of that.
'In the Fraser River, there aren't many Sturgeon over six feet long.
So at 6ft 9in, this one's pretty respectable.
It's by far the biggest fish I've ever caught.
' There we are, boys.
Dinosaur from the Fraser River.
I've never ever, ever caught a fish that fought that hard.
That fought a hundred times harder than any fish I've caught.
You earned it! Mate, I'm lost for words.
Look at him go.
Wow! Well done.
Fish of a lifetime, mate.
Genuinely is though.
Oh, man! I just need a few moments to get over it all.
I feel First time I've ever felt emotional fishing, honestly.
It was amazing, absolutely amazing.
'It's time for the final leg of our fishing adventure in British Columbia.
We're going to a location so remote, this is the best way to get there.
' We are literally in the middle of nowhere.
'Bella Coola is deep in the Great Bear Rainforest.
And here, the name is truly justified.
We're told there's one grizzly for every 15 people here, a chilling prospect.
We're now in one of the most densely populated grizzly territories in the world.
' Well, make yourself at home.
I'll put the kettle on, shall I? 'Tomorrow's the big day.
Time to reveal what we've come up with to keep us safe from the bears.
' Basically, I have figured I need to be as close as possible to the water, but I need to be invisible.
So I introduce to you, the covert fishing hide.
(LAUGHS) Why are you Honestly, it's a good idea.
Go on then, Jay, you're next.
Let's see what you've got.
I thought why not use an old kind of lumberjack method and climb up a tree whilst with a fishing rod? I'm gonna be out of sight from these bears, they are gonna be down, they're going to be looking at the salmon.
I'm all good, up, down.
So, Fish, what have you got? I need to step into my laboratory.
What do you think he's up to? Mate, I have absolutely no idea with that boy.
I imagine on the side of ridiculous.
Ta-da! (BOTH LAUGH) Are you serious? This is it, boys! Look, seriously, boys.
Seriously.
There's some solid science behind this, right? Who is the best salmon fisherman around here? The bear! So what I'm imitating here is the spirit bear or commode bear which is a subspecies of black bear that has very, very, very light pale fur.
Scientists believe that because they're white, although they still cast a shadow, it's not as scary as a black shadow, so it's a bit of counter shading.
So I could catch up to 40% more salmon than your average black bear.
Ridiculous.
It's gonna work a treat.
You are fishing a long way away from me.
Mate, I'll be fine.
I'll be absolutely fine.
'The rivers in Bella Coola are teeming with hundreds of thousands of pink salmon.
But their journey is at an end, they've spawned and they're dying in the exact spot that they were born.
It's the magnificent Coho salmon that's our prize.
They've just arrived, fresh from the Pacific and catching one is a real sporting challenge.
As if that isn't hard enough, we've now entered the grizzlies' favourite fishing grounds.
Time to put our plans into action.
' Listen, boys, I'm set here.
I'm in the right position.
Why don't you go and sort yourselves out, OK? All right, mate, see you later.
Oi! 'Splitting up really brings home how vulnerable we are.
' I've been keeping an eye out for bears and I've seen the footprints, so they are definitely here, 100%.
And knowing my luck, as soon as I climb that tree, there's going to be massive amounts of bears down here.
It's just my luck.
Right, that feels good.
Bear spray, check.
One thing about being up a tree is that I'll definitely be able to see the bears coming, so maybe this idea is not as stupid as it looks.
'It's looking pretty sensible, compared to this.
' There is definitely a slight issue here.
What the hell was that? Bears don't have this problem.
I'm sure the salmon are actually all around me, but I can't see them.
I'm just gonna try a method that I used back in Scotland.
These are British Columbian salmon, probably haven't seen a nice little shrimp fly like this before.
'To the salmon, the various artificial flies and lures look like prey and they can't resist a nibble.
In theory, anyway.
Problem is, whilst my camouflage is hiding me from the bears, it's seriously cramping my style.
' Oh! OK, you know what? I think this hide isn't working.
I can't get to the spot I want to fish.
And it's just ridiculous.
So I'm going to take the risk.
I can't see any bears around.
If there is one, I'm just gonna jump back in here.
'Out of the hide, I'm still having no luck.
Then my afternoon gets even worse.
' That is a big, big, big bear.
And I think it's got a cub.
It's got a cub with it.
Mother with a cub, that could be very aggressive.
She's getting territorial.
I'm fishing in her river where all her salmon are.
I'm gonna get back into my hide.
All right.
They're actually staring right at me.
That's not small either.
I reckon I'm gonna be safe up here.
'Whilst Jay dangles helplessly from a branch, is this the time to point out that grizzly bears can climb trees?' She's coming this way, bud.
We're gonna have to get you down.
You are joking me.
No way! They are not messing around! Why does this stuff always have to happen to me? Look he's getting close now, seriously.
They are literally just there.
She's got a cub, you know.
You don't want to be annoying her cos she'll send you some real bad news.
Wow.
The sheer power of them is absolutely incredible.
She's just ripping that salmon apart with her paws.
I can't believe they've just stolen my fishing spot.
But I'm not gonna argue with him.
At the end of the day, my excuse is basically the bears were there and I had to give way.
I'm happy with that.
'This truly must be one of nature's greatest sights.
' Oh, you little beauty.
Come to the spirit bear.
You cannot see me, I'm counter shaded.
Boo-yah! He just didn't see me! Now, this is a pink salmon.
And even though he's old, he's still putting up a good fight.
And it's time for him to go back in the water.
Off you go, matey.
Well, like any good bear after a catch, I think I'll get out of the water for a bit, warm up, maybe have 40 winks.
Oh! (GROANS) It's this damn hat! 'Whoops! And by the way, Blowfish, pink salmon don't count, they're far too easy.
Unlike the elusive Coho.
But now that the bears have finally moved on and I think I'm safe out of the hide, there's precious little time left for me to catch a Coho salmon.
' Sticking their fins up at me every single time they jump.
Oh, hello, mate.
You all right? Honestly? No, not really.
I'm getting so frustrated.
You can maybe give me some sanity.
I'll see what I can do.
Come here next to me, come on.
Just fish out towards that cloudy water.
That's right on top of him, that is.
Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! That's the one! All right, hold that rod, I'm gonna hold him.
Yes! Yes, Jay boy! I can't believe it! Yes.
Famous Coho salmon.
Look at him, mate, just silver as anything.
He's absolutely beautiful.
Can you believe this? This monkey! Forget luck of the Irish, mate! It's luck of the Cornish! Genuinely, mate, well done.
I'll cry while you let it go, OK? You ready? Yeah.
There she goes.
How you doing, Fish? I'm good, man, I'm good.
I think I'm doing better than you.
Yeah, maybe.
(CHUCKLES) Well, you know what, boys? I will raise my head and I will live to fight another day.
Come on.
You are the luckiest man ever to grab a fishing rod! Not at all.
We're three fishing fanatics on an epic adventure.
We're heading to some of the world's most extreme destinations to catch the most extraordinary fish.
But the creatures we're after don't make it easy, so we'll need to go to incredible lengths to catch the uncatchable.
This is Jay.
He's obsessed with free diving and spear fishing and is as tough as a nut.
' Course I am, I'm the Cornish man! 'This is Blowfish, a marine biologist.
' This is a vermilion rock cod.
'He likes to catch fish with his bare hands.
' Blimey, he's huge! Look at that! 'And I'm Charlie, the levelheaded one.
Levelheaded, that is, until I get a big bite.
' (CHUCKLES) Lashing down, man.
We're attached to something absolutely ginormous.
Whoa! 'I fish for salmon all over the UK but the holy grail for me has to be British Columbia in Canada.
Almost a million square kilometres of unspoilt wilderness rivers teeming with salmon and today, the location for a spectacular fishing trip.
Our journey will take us along the salmon's up-river route through British Columbia to our final destination, the Great Bear Rainforest.
There we're going to face the ultimate fishing challenge, attempting to catch salmon under the noses of grizzly bears.
But first, we're limbering up with some sea fishing in the very place our salmon started their epic journey, the Pacific Ocean.
' That's a nice boat.
That's a monster! Ah, Charlie boy, you have done well, mate.
'But what Blowfish doesn't know is that we're doing this like the locals.
Kayaks have been used by indigenous people here for centuries.
' Yeah! Let's go, boys! 'The rules are simple, biggest catch wins the day, loser cooks it for supper.
I'm confident my culinary skills won't be called upon tonight, especially as there's a novice in the ranks.
' Do I hold it in my left hand or my right hand? Whatever you feel comfortable doing, mate.
What, and now just, what, sit here? What's gonna happen? You'll know, man.
You'll feel a fish take the bait.
OK.
'Hundreds of thousands of salmon pass through here, but by now they're way up river, so we're going after their predators.
' We've got some nice fish down there.
There's halibut, lingcod.
Ancient fish, the old lingcod, mate.
'In true fishing style, it all kicks off at once.
' I'm in, I'm in, I'm in! He's on! Go on, son! Go on! Oh, no, no, no.
It came off.
Oh! Whoa, whoa, whoa! I've got one, I've got one! Well, reel him in then! What is that? What the hell do I do now? Yes, boy.
What do you reckon? Beautiful, beautiful.
Now this, this is a vermilion rock cod.
The thing about these guys is that he was pretty much dead when he came up.
Cos they've got a swim bladder, you pull them up faster than the swim bladder can empty, so you tend to kill them on the way up.
Still worth dispatching him properly, giving him an honourable death.
Are they good to eat? He will be so, so tasty.
'Decent looking fish, but I don't want to be cooking it, so I need to catch a bigger one.
' Are you on? Definitely.
Of course I am, I'm the Cornish man! I think I'm on as well! Get him up, boy! It's not a lazy man's sport, is it? Flippin' 'eck! Wow! Look at that! What you got? Yellow eye, my friend.
'The others are pulling fish out of the sea like magicians.
' That's another yellow eye rock cod.
'And I'm still waiting for my first catch.
' Damn! What have you got? That there, my friend, is a lingcod! Look at that! That's a beast! I'm well happy with that! Oh, well played, Jay.
Well played, man.
'This is gonna be hard to live down.
' Right, there's only one person that needs to catch a fish.
Yeah, that's Charlie.
'I can't deny, the unholy alliance of Blowfish and Jay is beginning to get just a bit annoying.
But then' Da-da-da-da-daaa! Yeah! That is a decent fish! 'At least I won't be leaving empty handed now.
Let's hope this is enough to win the day.
' Oh, look who it is.
You two have become like some little tag team today, haven't you? Someone needs to be bringing in the fish, mate, cos it ain't you.
Blimey, that's a nice fish.
Exactly.
Let's have a look.
Yellow eye rock cod.
So that's not as big as mine.
Let's see how big yours is? What? Cop hold of that, mate.
That's an absolute monster.
On the herring or the sardine? That was on the salmon, mate.
But Here we go.
Here we go.
Here we go.
It better be big! (GROANS) Look at that! Oh, it's close! You know what, boys? They're about the same.
(BLOWFISH GROANS) Shall we call it a day? Because I've heard lingcod's pretty good eating.
'OK, to be fair, the others did really have more fish than me.
So I've been lumbered with the job of cooking up today's catch.
Rock and lingcod barbequed with garlic, parsley and olive oil with some minted new potatoes.
' Get dishing.
Wahey, look at that.
Look at that! That's all right, lads, that, isn't it? B-E-A-U-tiful.
'Day Two in Canada, and we're on a mission to catch salmon from under the noses of grizzly bears.
Each year here, the salmon return in the hundreds of thousands to where they were born and then, having spawned, they die or get eaten.
Either way, their bodies become a key part of an amazing ecosystem.
Blowfish gives us the lowdown.
' The Pacific salmon run is the largest transfer of nutrients from ocean to land anywhere in the world.
You've got a fish feeding on different shrimps and fishes and molluscs and all this tasty stuff.
Then you're taking all those nutrients, all those minerals, and you're dropping that at the bottom of a giant pine tree.
It's incredible, isn't it? It's the best fertiliser you can get.
80% of the nutrients needed for these trees to grow come from the salmon.
80%? 80%.
Wow.
These are salmon forests.
'But the deeper we get, the more likely we are to meet bears.
So before we can road test our individual tactics, we need expert advice on how to snatch fish from under the grizzly's noses and live to tell the tale.
' Travelling in a group is good, stay nice and close.
And keep really aware of our surroundings, OK? I'm not going at the back, I'm going here.
'Holly Wilgress is a wilderness expert Handy to have around when you realise that British Columbia is home to more than 150,000 bears.
' Is that not a bear print? That's a bear print, yep.
It's bigger than my hand as well.
You've got the front paw print of a bear there and those are the three to four inch razor blades it has sticking up in front of its toes.
Are these claws retractable? No.
They're not retractable, no.
So any swipe, there's no Don't need to put their claws out, they're gonna get you whatever.
(CHUCKLES) 'OK, so now I'm getting worried.
What started out as a quest for salmon is rapidly turning into a quest for survival.
' At the moment, we're walking around and we're like All the time and we don't know what we're doing, so First off, most encounters are going to be quite passive and calm.
Often it's a bear defending its food, right, so if it has a carcass that it's feeding on.
A sow with cubs, if you surprise her she basically wants to neutralise the threat to her cubs.
So we just act calm, we watch the bear, we'll back away.
And if it continues towards you, what do you do then? With the grizzly bear, we want to stand our ground, right.
We don't want to run.
Oh, that's easier said than done! So you want to stand your ground and immediately deploy your bear spray as fast as you can.
And it needs to be used at very close distance, so within 30 feet.
You wanna aim slightly above their head, so it actually falls into their eyes and nasal passages and that's very effective in stopping a charge.
Have you ever had to do this yourself? I've had a few incidents with bears, most of them were when I was young and doing stupid things that I shouldn't have been.
Like fishing in bear infested waters.
Well, yeah.
Yeah.
(LAUGHS) 'Hmm Even more reason to work on our ingenious bear evasion strategies.
We're tracing the salmon's epic journey to their spawning grounds in the heart of the Great Bear Rainforest.
The salmon share the rivers with one of the biggest freshwater species in the world.
And Jay and I just can't resist the chance to try and catch one.
In the Fraser River, there's a beast of a fish that spends its 100-year lifespan getting fat off the millions of passing salmon.
It's one of the true monsters of the deep, the giant white sturgeon.
' Whoa, whoa, whoa! Get him in, Charlie! Yes, I knew it! Reel it up, reel it up, reel it up! (GROANS) Just keep it tight.
Oooh! He's a screamer! Grab that weight off, grab this weight off.
I can't stop him.
I can't stop him.
He's charging! He just keeps on taking line.
ALL: WHOA! (LAUGHS) I can't believe it, Charlie! 'It's definitely a white sturgeon and could be the biggest fish I've ever caught if I can land the beast.
' He's diving.
He's diving! He's strippin' again! Look at him go! (LAUGHS) Oh, my God! That's ridiculous, wow! The power in that fish! 'Sturgeon have been around for 100 million years and you can see why.
They're powerful fighters.
This one just doesn't seem to be tiring, no matter how many times I reel him in.
' Hold on, boy! (GROANS) OK, guys, he's coming up now.
Whoa! Oh look at the size of that.
'In the Fraser River, there aren't many Sturgeon over six feet long.
So at 6ft 9in, this one's pretty respectable.
It's by far the biggest fish I've ever caught.
' There we are, boys.
Dinosaur from the Fraser River.
I've never ever, ever caught a fish that fought that hard.
That fought a hundred times harder than any fish I've caught.
You earned it! Mate, I'm lost for words.
Look at him go.
Wow! Well done.
Fish of a lifetime, mate.
Genuinely is though.
Oh, man! I just need a few moments to get over it all.
I feel First time I've ever felt emotional fishing, honestly.
It was amazing, absolutely amazing.
'It's time for the final leg of our fishing adventure in British Columbia.
We're going to a location so remote, this is the best way to get there.
' We are literally in the middle of nowhere.
'Bella Coola is deep in the Great Bear Rainforest.
And here, the name is truly justified.
We're told there's one grizzly for every 15 people here, a chilling prospect.
We're now in one of the most densely populated grizzly territories in the world.
' Well, make yourself at home.
I'll put the kettle on, shall I? 'Tomorrow's the big day.
Time to reveal what we've come up with to keep us safe from the bears.
' Basically, I have figured I need to be as close as possible to the water, but I need to be invisible.
So I introduce to you, the covert fishing hide.
(LAUGHS) Why are you Honestly, it's a good idea.
Go on then, Jay, you're next.
Let's see what you've got.
I thought why not use an old kind of lumberjack method and climb up a tree whilst with a fishing rod? I'm gonna be out of sight from these bears, they are gonna be down, they're going to be looking at the salmon.
I'm all good, up, down.
So, Fish, what have you got? I need to step into my laboratory.
What do you think he's up to? Mate, I have absolutely no idea with that boy.
I imagine on the side of ridiculous.
Ta-da! (BOTH LAUGH) Are you serious? This is it, boys! Look, seriously, boys.
Seriously.
There's some solid science behind this, right? Who is the best salmon fisherman around here? The bear! So what I'm imitating here is the spirit bear or commode bear which is a subspecies of black bear that has very, very, very light pale fur.
Scientists believe that because they're white, although they still cast a shadow, it's not as scary as a black shadow, so it's a bit of counter shading.
So I could catch up to 40% more salmon than your average black bear.
Ridiculous.
It's gonna work a treat.
You are fishing a long way away from me.
Mate, I'll be fine.
I'll be absolutely fine.
'The rivers in Bella Coola are teeming with hundreds of thousands of pink salmon.
But their journey is at an end, they've spawned and they're dying in the exact spot that they were born.
It's the magnificent Coho salmon that's our prize.
They've just arrived, fresh from the Pacific and catching one is a real sporting challenge.
As if that isn't hard enough, we've now entered the grizzlies' favourite fishing grounds.
Time to put our plans into action.
' Listen, boys, I'm set here.
I'm in the right position.
Why don't you go and sort yourselves out, OK? All right, mate, see you later.
Oi! 'Splitting up really brings home how vulnerable we are.
' I've been keeping an eye out for bears and I've seen the footprints, so they are definitely here, 100%.
And knowing my luck, as soon as I climb that tree, there's going to be massive amounts of bears down here.
It's just my luck.
Right, that feels good.
Bear spray, check.
One thing about being up a tree is that I'll definitely be able to see the bears coming, so maybe this idea is not as stupid as it looks.
'It's looking pretty sensible, compared to this.
' There is definitely a slight issue here.
What the hell was that? Bears don't have this problem.
I'm sure the salmon are actually all around me, but I can't see them.
I'm just gonna try a method that I used back in Scotland.
These are British Columbian salmon, probably haven't seen a nice little shrimp fly like this before.
'To the salmon, the various artificial flies and lures look like prey and they can't resist a nibble.
In theory, anyway.
Problem is, whilst my camouflage is hiding me from the bears, it's seriously cramping my style.
' Oh! OK, you know what? I think this hide isn't working.
I can't get to the spot I want to fish.
And it's just ridiculous.
So I'm going to take the risk.
I can't see any bears around.
If there is one, I'm just gonna jump back in here.
'Out of the hide, I'm still having no luck.
Then my afternoon gets even worse.
' That is a big, big, big bear.
And I think it's got a cub.
It's got a cub with it.
Mother with a cub, that could be very aggressive.
She's getting territorial.
I'm fishing in her river where all her salmon are.
I'm gonna get back into my hide.
All right.
They're actually staring right at me.
That's not small either.
I reckon I'm gonna be safe up here.
'Whilst Jay dangles helplessly from a branch, is this the time to point out that grizzly bears can climb trees?' She's coming this way, bud.
We're gonna have to get you down.
You are joking me.
No way! They are not messing around! Why does this stuff always have to happen to me? Look he's getting close now, seriously.
They are literally just there.
She's got a cub, you know.
You don't want to be annoying her cos she'll send you some real bad news.
Wow.
The sheer power of them is absolutely incredible.
She's just ripping that salmon apart with her paws.
I can't believe they've just stolen my fishing spot.
But I'm not gonna argue with him.
At the end of the day, my excuse is basically the bears were there and I had to give way.
I'm happy with that.
'This truly must be one of nature's greatest sights.
' Oh, you little beauty.
Come to the spirit bear.
You cannot see me, I'm counter shaded.
Boo-yah! He just didn't see me! Now, this is a pink salmon.
And even though he's old, he's still putting up a good fight.
And it's time for him to go back in the water.
Off you go, matey.
Well, like any good bear after a catch, I think I'll get out of the water for a bit, warm up, maybe have 40 winks.
Oh! (GROANS) It's this damn hat! 'Whoops! And by the way, Blowfish, pink salmon don't count, they're far too easy.
Unlike the elusive Coho.
But now that the bears have finally moved on and I think I'm safe out of the hide, there's precious little time left for me to catch a Coho salmon.
' Sticking their fins up at me every single time they jump.
Oh, hello, mate.
You all right? Honestly? No, not really.
I'm getting so frustrated.
You can maybe give me some sanity.
I'll see what I can do.
Come here next to me, come on.
Just fish out towards that cloudy water.
That's right on top of him, that is.
Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! That's the one! All right, hold that rod, I'm gonna hold him.
Yes! Yes, Jay boy! I can't believe it! Yes.
Famous Coho salmon.
Look at him, mate, just silver as anything.
He's absolutely beautiful.
Can you believe this? This monkey! Forget luck of the Irish, mate! It's luck of the Cornish! Genuinely, mate, well done.
I'll cry while you let it go, OK? You ready? Yeah.
There she goes.
How you doing, Fish? I'm good, man, I'm good.
I think I'm doing better than you.
Yeah, maybe.
(CHUCKLES) Well, you know what, boys? I will raise my head and I will live to fight another day.
Come on.
You are the luckiest man ever to grab a fishing rod! Not at all.