ESPN Freshwater

Catfish, yep. Dogfish, sure.

Vampire Fish?

The name brings to mind blood-sucking lampreys, but no, National Geographic Channel's "Hooked" has more of a bite to it.

The hour-long show, "Vampire Fish," which debuts Monday, June 29 at 10 p.m. ET, takes a jaunt around the world looking at hard-core anglers and their attempts to reel in fish that possess some serious chompers.

Ichthyologist Justin Grubich, a specialist in fish teeth and jaws, heads to the Amazon in Brazil for research, including attempts to record the bite forces of two particularly toothy species.

The first species he catches is the pacu, which has a bottom row of teeth that look human. He later reveals the evolutionary design is because they are frugivores, needing the strong grill to break and eat fallen fruits and nuts.

The show crosses the Atlantic to follow the exploits of Czech Republic national Jakub Vagner. On a lifelong quest for 23 huge species he's put on his bucket list, Vagner reels in a Goliath Tiger fish on the Congo River. The prehistoric looking beast's maw is compared to "bear trap jaws."

No show on gnarly-toothed fish is complete without a shark, so it's off to Australia, where East Coast anglers use a unique method to tag a great white. Fishing from the beach, a surfer delivers the bait past the surfline, being extra careful not to leave body parts in the water to give the sharks more to "chew on."

The team of ingenious Aussie anglers even fashioned a fighting chair to mount on the front of their vehicle, and they drive along the beach to keep up with runs. With heavy tackle, a great white is basically winched to shore, tagged and gingerly turned back into the surf for release. Watching this it's no wonder amateur tagging has since become illegal.

After a run out to Hawaii to profile the state record barracuda catch and Oklahoma for one of the largest freshwater monsters, the alligator gar, the show finishes back with Grubich and the its real namesake.

Payara are known as Vampire Fish for the two daggers protruding from their bottom jaw. The payara keep their two-inch sabers sheathed in holes on the roofs of their mouths.

To assess their bite force, Grubich takes impressions of the fish's teeth, which are used not for making holes to suck blood but to grab prey in raging Amazon streams.

National Geographics Hooked series profiling monster fish with monster teeth airs Mondays at 10 p.m. ET. For more information, go to NatGeoTV.com.