Tom Rowland Podcast Episode 1017 is a conversation with angler David Graham, the man behind Boundless Pursuit, about chasing the hardest fish in the most remote corners of the planet: hunting a 300-pound-capable goonch catfish on a Himalayan-fed river in India surrounded by man-eating tigers and leopards, landing a Goliath tigerfish deep in the Republic of Congo, and the philosophy that drives all of it: David does not want to be good at fishing, he wants fishing to be the thing he has to overcome.
Listen now: Apple Podcasts · Spotify · YouTube · press play in the player above to watch.
David Graham is an angler who travels under the name Boundless Pursuit, chasing rare and difficult fish in some of the most remote and demanding places on earth. He has fished for goonch catfish in India, wels catfish in Spain, and Goliath tigerfish in the Congo. He does it while working a normal factory job and raising two daughters, funding his trips through a dedicated savings account he builds by refurbishing and reselling used gear. You can find him at @boundlesspursuit on Instagram and at boundless-pursuit.com.
A goonch catfish is a large, river-dwelling catfish that lives in the fast, cold, glacial and snowmelt-fed rivers running down from the Himalayas. David describes a fish that can grow to roughly 300 pounds, with large rear-facing teeth, thick bony-based whiskers, and a tough, rubbery, slime-free skin that helps it lock itself into the rocks of heavy current. On this trip he fished the Ramganga River, a tributary of the Ganges along the boundary of Jim Corbett National Park in India.
David fished a river running along a national park known for free-range tigers and leopards, in a region where man-eating attacks are far more common than most people realize. During his ten days there, a leopard attacked a group of people at a riverside funeral and later mauled a man at a nearby camp, and a man gathering firewood was killed by a tiger about a mile and a half from where David was sleeping. On the final morning, a leopard killed a deer at the edge of their camp and David filmed it.
David fished the Republic of Congo with a husband-and-wife operation that owns a remote lodge on prime Goliath tigerfish water. He drifted a half-dead baitfish a couple of feet below the surface, holding the rod from sunup to sundown out of indigenous dugout canoes, and landed his fish on the eighth day of a ten-day trip. He explains the full setup and the fight in the episode.
David is candid that he is not a wealthy man who travels for a living. He works a normal nine-to-five at a factory and balances family life and finances like anyone else. He funds a dedicated fishing savings account by refurbishing curbside and Marketplace kayaks and selling off unused things from his own garage, and he keeps his fishing gear deliberately minimal. He gets into the specifics on the show.
David's research method is the part anglers ask about most. The key, he explains, is to search for the local name of the fish in the local language, then work through ChatGPT, forums, and Facebook tourism groups, often reaching out to birding or rafting operators who already have the infrastructure in place. From there he triangulates likely water by reading river features the way only time on the water teaches you to.
Tom Rowland Podcast Episode 1017 with David Graham is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and iHeartRadio. The video version is embedded at the top of this page.
David and I first sat down about four years ago, and I have followed what he has been doing ever since. I do not know anyone who chases the hardest possible version of fishing the way he does. When he showed up yesterday, he was still feeling a trip to India in his back from sleeping on rocks for half a month. I started the conversation by telling him he might be the most interesting man in the room, and I meant it. I wanted to hear how a guy with a normal job and two kids ends up fishing rivers where tigers eat people.
Press play in the YouTube player at the top of this page to hear the whole thing in his own words.
The thing that separates David from almost everyone I talk to is that he is not trying to get good at fishing. He told me he wants fishing to be his grindstone, something he has to overcome, with the threat of failure hanging over every trip. He has a way of describing the sweet spot, that feeling of being just good enough to get it done on the last hour of the last day, that I keep thinking about. He says it better than I can write it, so listen to that part of the episode.
David fished a stretch of river along a national park famous for its man-eating big cats, and the stories from those ten days are hard to believe even hearing them straight from him. There were attacks near camp during the trip. There was a tiger kill close enough that one of his guides had to leave and respond to it. On the last morning, the cat came to the water's edge and David got the whole thing on video. He walks through all of it on the show, and it is worth hearing in his own words.
The goonch is unlike any catfish I had pictured. No slime coat, a skin like a car tire, fins that grip the rocks, and a fight that is all about digging into caves and crevices rather than running. David also came up with a breakaway weight using rocks and produce sacks that I had never heard of anyone trying. The way he and his friend Jacob had to chase fish down in a packraft to pry them out of the rocks is something else. Watch the player above for the full breakdown.
The Congo is the trip David calls his real big one, and his picture of it is nothing like the one most people carry around. He describes a husband-and-wife operation that smoothed the logistics, a capital city that surprised him, a stretch of the second-largest river on earth, and a village visit that he says changed how he lives back home. He talks about what he brought the kids there and a ritual he was invited to witness. That section is one of my favorites in this conversation, so press play and listen.
I have caught exactly one tigerfish in my life, a tiny one on a touristy half-day where the real story was a pod of hippos chasing the boat down. David has caught the real thing. The way he describes the strike, full speed with no warning, fish coming clear out of the water, and the eighth-day catch after losing fish and grinding through the doubt, is the kind of thing only the audio can deliver. He even kept the raw fight video. Listen to him tell it.
Listen to the full conversation: Apple Podcasts · Spotify · or watch in the YouTube player at the top of this page.
What stays with me a day after talking to David is not the size of the fish. It is the idea that he goes looking for difficulty on purpose, and that the trips do something to him that he carries back into his ordinary life. He talks about walking through a store afterward and asking himself whether he really needs the thing in his hand. That is a takeaway that has nothing to do with fishing and everything to do with it.
He also has a real conviction about leaving these fisheries better than he found them, and a next trip he would only describe in riddles. I told him to come back and break the news when it is done.
Press play in the player above, or grab Episode 1017 on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
David Graham · Boundless Pursuit · goonch catfish · Ramganga River · Ganges River · Jim Corbett National Park · Wild Water Creek · golden mahseer · Ugly Stik · wels catfish · Ebro River · Ebro Total Fishing · Goliath tigerfish (Mbenga) · Republic of Congo · Brazzaville · Congo River · Mbenga River Outpost · Seychelles · Myanmar · India
David Graham is an angler and writer who travels under the name Boundless Pursuit, seeking out rare and difficult fish in remote and demanding places around the world, from the Himalayan-fed rivers of India to the Republic of Congo. He has pursued goonch catfish, wels catfish, Goliath tigerfish, arapaima, and more, and he documents the journeys in writing, photography, and film. He does it alongside a full-time job and family life, funding each trip through disciplined saving and a minimalist approach to gear. He can be found at @boundlesspursuit on Instagram and at boundless-pursuit.com.
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