River Monsters: Vundu Caught

River Monsters: Vundu Caught

By: Timothy Kwon, Riley Ryan, and Bryce Yeager

           Jeremy Wade from River Monsters on Discovery Channel went to the Zambezi River in Africa. He heard stories of people mysteriously dying when fishing, so he went to catch a beast called the Vundu. He went to a river that said to have the beast. This river had a many fierce rapids, etc. He went to a part of a river with rapids. He threw his line in a caught nothing. He tried again and this time he caught a catfish, but it wasn’t the one he was looking for. Then he went to a part in the river that was half peaceful water and half rapids. He threw his line and caught something. When he pulled it in, he caught a tiger fish; sort of like the piranha, but bigger. So he gave up on that part of a river.

            So he went to a brother of someone who died of being pulled into the river when he was fishing. Jeremy thinks he died of the fish he was trying to catch. The brother gives him some info on the fish. He says that it was a snake-like fish. Then he goes to a place and he asks them if he could fish at the bottom of the dam. While he is waiting for an approval, he goes to another part of the Zambezi River to fish. He tries but, he only gets other fish. Then when he was going back, he sees a dead hippo so he goes there and puts a hand line and leaves it overnight. The next day he goes to the same place he put the hand line in, he gets a catfish, but not the one he was looking for. 

            Then he gets news that he got his proposal to fish at the dam approved. So he immediately goes there as soon as possible. He throws his line and he got a fish! He pulls the fish in but not without a fight and he catches the fish he was looking for! It was the Vundu, almost 5 feet long, and 121 pounds. It was muscular and the color was olive brown on the surface and light brown or white on its bottom side. And it is the biggest freshwater species in Southern Africa and it can live up to 12 years. It is also known as Heterobranchus longifilis. This is clearly a man-eating fish.