{"id":2443447,"date":"2019-04-25T22:24:00","date_gmt":"2019-04-26T04:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/colorado-fisherman-snags-role-on-new-animal-planet-series-fish-or-die\/"},"modified":"2019-04-25T22:24:00","modified_gmt":"2019-04-26T04:24:00","slug":"colorado-fisherman-snags-role-on-new-animal-planet-series-fish-or-die","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/colorado-fisherman-snags-role-on-new-animal-planet-series-fish-or-die\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado fisherman snags role on new Animal Planet series \u2018Fish or Die\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
Chris Owens (from the left), Brian Jill, Thad Robison and Colorado resident Jay Johnson trek through Bolivia in the premiere of Animal Planet’s new show, \u201cFish or Die.\u201d<\/strong>
Courtesy of Animal Planet<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

GREELEY \u2014 There are similarities between casting a fly-fishing rod in Big Thompson River in Johnstown and casting one deep in the Amazon rainforest, Jay Johnson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen a fish takes (the bait), there\u2019s nothing else in the world you can think of,\u201d he said. \u201cThe pressures of this world are completely washed away as soon as the fish takes. That\u2019s anywhere, any fish.\u201d<\/p>\n

But there are, of course, differences \u2014 the Amazon has bugs, torrential rain and indigenous people far removed from civilization.<\/p>\n

There are also plenty of fish that call the rivers home.<\/p>\n

Johnson, a fly fisherman who owns Colorado Stock and Grain in Johnstown, near Loveland, is one of four regulars who each week will take viewers to exotic locations on Animal Planet\u2019s new extreme fishing reality show \u201cFish or Die,\u201d which debuted this past Sunday.<\/p>\n

Johnson and his three longtime friends \u2014 Chris Owens, Tad Robison and Brian Jill, Johnson being the only one from Colorado \u2014 will trek deep into remote and uncharted areas of the planet to find, catch and study rare fish in their natural habitats. The guys filmed the series from this past July through last month. In that time, they visited 10 countries across five continents.<\/p>\n

The pilot episode follows the quartet deep into the heart of Bolivia along a tributary of the Amazon River to catch the golden dorado, dubbed by the stars of the show as \u201cthe holy grail of jungle fish,\u201d a toothy apex predator found in South America\u2019s freshwater.<\/p>\n

Along the way, they work with the indigenous Tsimane people to help get through various legs of their trip through the Amazon, and also learn their way of life.<\/p>\n

That was Johnson\u2019s favorite part of the expedition, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s mind-blowing to build relationships with people who are so far removed from everything we know \u2014 that have never seen a cellphone, that have never seen a store, never had shoes,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cIt\u2019s like being able to see what the Poudre River was like a thousand years ago. It was a rare and fascinating opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson and his buddies have been making videos for years, which got them on Animal Planet\u2019s radar to create a show for their network. Johnson moved to Johnstown from Fort Collins about three years ago.<\/p>\n

He grew up just outside Portland, Oregon, and was in and out of group homes and foster homes. That\u2019s when he discovered his love for fishing and the outdoors, which allowed him to stay out of trouble, he said<\/p>\n

\u201cFish or Die\u201d puts the emphasis on the \u201cdie.\u201d The guys encounter multiple hazards as they descend deeper into Bolivia: Bugs, snakes, poisonous trees, torrential rain, rushing river water, jungle rot and fireside tales of cannibals who still lurk in the jungle.<\/p>\n

Johnson says it best in the episode: \u201cEverything wants to kill you in the jungle.\u201d<\/p>\n

He had a brush with danger the first night they made camp in Bolivia. He wakes up to see one of his hands swollen like a balloon from bug bites.<\/p>\n

The cure? A shot right in his bum. It was all caught on camera and made it into the premiere.<\/p>\n

\u201cBugs just like me. If you\u2019re next to me and we\u2019re in a jungle and you get a bug bite, I\u2019ll have 50,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cI haven\u2019t had a shot since probably elementary school. Getting into a situation where you have to take a shot for a bug bite is scary just in itself, but having cameras running and all that stuff \u2014 what a situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The rest of the season features trips to more treacherous lands including Zambia, Mongolia and Greenland. Johnson promises plenty more adventure.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to get into some trouble,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cWith exploration and trying new places, things happen. We\u2019ll get to see some places that people haven\u2019t stepped and interact in environments that really are (a) time machine.\u201d<\/p>\n

apoulisse@greeleytribune.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chris Owens (from the left), Brian Jill, Thad Robison and Colorado resident Jay Johnson trek through Bolivia in the premiere of Animal Planet’s new show, \u201cFish or Die.\u201dCourtesy of Animal Planet GREELEY \u2014 There are similarities between casting a fly-fishing rod in Big Thompson River in Johnstown and casting one deep in the Amazon rainforest, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2443447","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-17 08:50:01","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2443447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2443447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2443447\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2443447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2443447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2443447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}