Winter Topic: Have You Fished In A Lake That Contains A Monster/Creature?

[BASS302]

Mods: I wasn’t sure where to post this - please move to the appropriate forum.

 

Have any of you fished in a body of water purported to contain a monster or creature? 

I have fished in two lakes that supposedly contain some sort of monster/creature.

Lake Hodges and Lake Tahoe.  I didn’t even know there is supposed to be a monster in either of them.

Lake Hodges allegedly has a Loch Ness Monster-like creature, and Lake Tahoe apparently has a serpent-like creature.

Wikipedia has a list of lakes that contain monsters if you are curious.  

[jimmyjoe]

4 minutes ago, BASS302 said:

Have any of you fished in a body of water purported to contain a monster

 

Only when I'm there.   ???   jj

[Bankbeater]

Yes, but the ufo came and removed it.

[detroit1]

There's monsters in every lake i fish, but i can't prove it.

[Bluebasser86]

Every lake in the midwest with a big dam supposedly has catfish the size of a car that have divers scared to work on the dams. If this were true, we'd have swimmers coming up missing all the time.

[Russ E]

6 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

Every lake in the midwest with a big dam supposedly has catfish the size of a car that have divers scared to work on the dams. If this were true, we'd have swimmers coming up missing all the time.

Growing up in eastern Iowa we had this same urban legend. We heard stories of giant man eating catfish in the spillways of the reservoirs and below the Mississippi locks and dams. If it were true, you would think one would eventually float up on shore when they die.

[TnRiver46]

7 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

Every lake in the midwest with a big dam supposedly has catfish the size of a car that have divers scared to work on the dams. If this were true, we'd have swimmers coming up missing all the time.

That’s a myth all across the US. I had a diver for TVA as a customer once, he said it’s all BS because you can’t see 3 inches at the bottom of a dam when diving 

[scaleface]

[BASS302]

12 hours ago, Russ E said:

Growing up in eastern Iowa we had this same urban legend. We heard stories of giant man eating catfish in the spillways of the reservoirs and below the Mississippi locks and dams.

Here's something I found on the internet:

Iowa's American Indian Underwater Dragon

Historically, Iowa was inhabited by various Algonquian Indian tribes, such as the Kickapoo, the Iowa River "Mahouea", Mascouten, Sauk and the Meskwaki (Fox). The Meskwaki (Fox) spoke of an aquatic dragon, commonly known as the Underwater Panther (Naamipeshiwa or Peshipeshiwa). Native-languages.org describes this dragon as "...A powerful mythological creature something like a cross between a cougar and a dragon. It is a dangerous monster who lives in deep water and causes men and women to drown."

 

 

@scaleface

Got any photos of this thing:

 

 

It must be winter.  LOL.

[Captain Phil]

About twenty years ago, I was fishing alone in Little Lake Harris.  Other than myself, the lake was deserted.  I saw something out of the corner of my eye that got my attention.  When I looked back, it was gone.  Shortly thereafter I saw what looked like a big black stick raise out of the water.  I thought I was seeing things, but a few minutes later I saw it again.  At first I thought it was a person in the water, but it was much bigger.   It was damned spooky.   I started my big motor and idled out to see what it was.   It kept appearing and disappearing.  When I got close enough to see what it was, I found a dead bloated cow floating in the water.  A huge gator was pulling on it.  I assumed the gator was trying to take it down or bite off a piece?  What I saw were the cow's legs as the gator turned it over.  Over the years I have seen some strange stuff, but that was one of the strangest.

 

I have fished all over the world in both fresh and salt water.  When you're offshore and alone, your eyes can play tricks on you.  I have never seen a sea or a lake monster.

[TnRiver46]

I’ve seen several, then I realized they were paddle fish and sturgeon jumping. I was a little skeerd there for a while 

[soflabasser]

I have fished bodies of water with sharks, alligators, crocodiles, stingrays, moray eels, and other potentially dangerous aquatic animals. On land I fished areas with bears, panthers, coyotes, pythons, poisonous snakes.

[N Florida Mike]

Nothing I cant explain. There’s always  the story around here of “Ol tail light”. He was (is)?  a Gator of legendary proportions on the St Johns river system.He got his name from people saying his eyes shining red at night were as far apart as car tail lights. 

The gator trapper licensed by the state in our area was Bubba Stratton. He would occasionally get a complaint about the gator and hunt it. Although he got hundreds of gators in his career, he never got ol tail light. He said once he was going back into a creek , and Ol tail light was coming out with a 8 foot gator in his mouth sideways. Another man said it approached his boat and was the same length as it ( 16 foot). 

 

[NYWayfarer]

I fished Lake Champlain which supposedly has its own version of the Loch Ness monster named “Champy”

 

If he was real the invasive Lamprey in that lake would have killed him by now...

[Logan S]

Bull sharks are occasionally seen in the Potomac and Chesapeake up in the bass waters.  There's supposedly a 'Chessie' that lives in the bay as well.  

 

Of sort of similar and interesting note, there's a sunken German U-Boat in the Potomac, though further south so not in the areas I fish for bass.  

 

I've also heard of the mega catfish at/below dams - I think that's a universal superstition .  

[BASS302]

@NYWayfarer,

Wikipedia also lists the following in New York as having  Lake Monsters: Black River, Hudson River, Onondaga Lake, Finger Lakes, and Schroon Lake.  Ever fish at any of those?

[Russ E]

6 hours ago, BASS302 said:

Here's something I found on the internet:

Iowa's American Indian Underwater Dragon

Historically, Iowa was inhabited by various Algonquian Indian tribes, such as the Kickapoo, the Iowa River "Mahouea", Mascouten, Sauk and the Meskwaki (Fox). The Meskwaki (Fox) spoke of an aquatic dragon, commonly known as the Underwater Panther (Naamipeshiwa or Peshipeshiwa). Native-languages.org describes this dragon as "...A powerful mythological creature something like a cross between a cougar and a dragon. It is a dangerous monster who lives in deep water and causes men and women to drown."

 

 

@scaleface

Got any photos of this thing:

 

 

It must be winter.  LOL.

I have never heard of that monster, 

but this Meskwaki monster has broke a few pale faces.

https://www.meskwaki.com/

 

[NYWayfarer]

2 hours ago, BASS302 said:

@NYWayfarer,

Wikipedia also lists the following in New York as having  Lake Monsters: Black River, Hudson River, Onondaga Lake, Finger Lakes, and Schroon Lake.  Ever fish at any of those?

All but the Black River.

 

You learn something new everyday. NY is full of monsters it seems.

[Boomstick]

I fished in Lake Champlain which is the home of Champ, basically Vermont and New York's lochness monster. Lake Elmore is supposed to have a similar monster as well. My youngest son bought a book of monsters across Vermont.

[schplurg]

I have the Loch Ness Monster mounted on the wall at work (wouldn't fit in the house), so anyone claiming to see it in the water (since 1998) is full of dung.

 

And before anyone asks: medium rod, 10# mono and a Beetle Spin with a 3 inch white YUM grub at around 65 feet. Shoulda gone with a stouter rod, must have fought me for 8 hours or more.

[Captain Phil]

Years ago I knew a group of guys that hunted the Everglades Skunk Ape.  The Skunk Ape was similar to Big Foot only stinky.   They were a bunch of Soldier of Fortune types armed to the teeth with all sorts of weaponry.  They made a few videos.  Mostly they drank a lot of beer and tried not to shoot each other.  When I was young, I did some things that weren't real smart like fishing alone at night in the Everglades.  The Everglades is criss crossed with miles of drainage canals.  Fishing alone in the dark at 2 AM 30 miles from the ramp is asking for trouble.  I scared myself a few times.  Never did see or smell the Skunk Ape.

[goosejetski]

I fish in West Virginia. A local river here has some sort of large snapping turtle like monster called the Ogua. It was originally described from Native Americans many years ago. Its pretty cool.

https://www.wboy.com/top-stories/paranormal-w-va-the-ogua-monster/#:~:text=– A 20-foot-long,alligator snapping turtle-like creature.

[HaydenS]

On 12/30/2020 at 12:40 AM, Bluebasser86 said:

Every lake in the midwest with a big dam supposedly has catfish the size of a car that have divers scared to work on the dams. If this were true, we'd have swimmers coming up missing all the time.

I know this is from awhile back.

I heard they can eat a school bus!  ?

[J Francho]

Yes.

[Bubba 460]

Yes, I have. While living in Alaska my older brother and I took a commercial flight from Anchorage to Lake Iliamna. A remote and except for a few Indian villages sparsely populated area of SW Alaska.  It is the largest lake in Alaska and the 3rd largest lake in the United States. The lake  is 77 miles long, 22 miles wide, 1,000 feet deep, and is the home of the Iliamna Monster. It is a creature reported to be bigger than the floats on a float plane. From the small village of Iliamna we flew out in a beat-up bush plane on floats piloted by an Alaskan Indian guide. We flew for about 45 minutes across the lake and he landed us on a remote section of the shoreline where a river entered the lake, about a hundred feet wide at the mouth. We took out our fishing gear, rifles (338 Magnums), sleeping bags, and food stock and the plane flew off. Once the drone of the engine faded away the sound of silence was deafening.  We were now a hundred miles from nowhere and some of the largest brown bears in Alaska roam this wilderness.

 

We were there to catch native rainbow trout, and catch them them we did. Nearly every cast was a 5 to 10 pound rainbow. Some of the hardest fighting fish I've encountered, long runs, aerobatics, they had it all. You had to stop and take a break for a bit then hit 'em again. Red fox were everywhere and totally unafraid of humans. They would run in and grab the trout as they flopped on the bank and run off with it, sometimes with drag screaming.

 

There was a small metal Quonset hut there that set back in the brush that was about 10' wide and 15' long with claw marks all over it. Had a couple of bunks, small table and chairs small wood stove and some can goods along the wall on boxes and oil lamps.

 

Well, to make a long story short, we were to be there for two days but the weather turned foul, high winds plummeted the lake, it rain sideways, and the waves on the lake were 4 foot high... there would be no plane for days. We hunkered in the hut for three days, played cards, growled at each other and continually looked out the small window for signs of clearing. Day five was more of the same: wind, rain, and cold. In the afternoon we heard the drone of a plane ~ in this weather??... Yes, it was our pilot. He circled, tipped his wings, and we thought he was just doing a suicidal check up on us. He swings around and lands in that little river. We load up our gear and he taxied  down the river as far as he could then turned and hammered it. Wind howling, raining so hard you could barley see and 4 foot white capping swells just ahead on the lake. The engine was maxed when we hit the first big swell on the lake; the little bush plan shuddered and bounded to the next wave and then we were in the air ~ we all breathed again.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iliamna_Lake