Next summer, I plan to fish for the Lake Iliamna Monster. I\u2019m bored of catching salmon, halibut and trout, and it doesn\u2019t look like the Feds are going to allow even catch-and-release whaling anytime soon. Stupid Marine Mammal Protection Act.<\/p>\n
I need more of a thrill, so I\u2019m borrowing a pack-raft, some long-line gear and a virgin goat (for bait) and flying to Iliamna. I plan to write a book afterward in the vein of the classics, \u201cThe Old Man and the Sea\u201d and \u201cA River Runs Through It.\u201d My girlfriend has suggested the title \u201cThe Dumbass* and the Lake,\u201d but I\u2019m leaning toward \u201cA Lake Sits on it.\u201d I plan to also write a manual on how to fish for freshwater monsters, a book of poetry and a blockbuster Hollywood screenplay.<\/p>\n
Iliamna Lake, at more than 1,000 square miles, is the largest body of freshwater in Alaska. There are rumors it\u2019s around 1,700 feet deep. The Kvichak River, draining out of the southwest region, runs for about 60 miles into Bristol Bay. Long known for its incredible populations of salmon and trout, it\u2019s also said to harbor monstrous fish-like creatures. Stories of these beasts go far back before this century, but with the advent of bush planes and the epidemic of media there have been more and more reports. Many have come from reliable sources that did not have mullets and were not drunk or tripping on hallucinogenics. All say they see a strange giant fish creature, sometimes in small groups, from eight to more than 30 feet long, floating near the lake\u2019s surface. There have also been sightings in the Kvichak River which may indicate the creatures travel back and forth from the Bering Sea.<\/p>\n
Jeremy Wade, the host of Animal Planet\u2019s show \u201cRiver Monsters,\u201d brought worldwide attention to the Iliamna monster when he attempted to catch one during an episode called \u201cAlaskan Horror.\u201d Before that, others have dusted off their tackle and rods and given it a go. One party set long-line gear in 300 feet of water without hooking anything. Another supposedly tried fishing with steel cables attached to their floatplane. The story goes that the monster struck, the fisherman got knocked off the float, and the monster towed the plane around the lake.<\/p>\n
According to a 2010 ADN article: \u201cIn June of 1980, the Daily News offered $100,000 for tangible evidence of the Iliamna Lake Monster and sent reporter Bill Wilson to the lake to untangle the myths. The reward brought both serious and non-serious responses. One man, according to the website unknownexplorers.com, reportedly played classical music to lure the animal up from the depths. There were no results, and to this day there has never been a well-financed search using sophisticated sonar and underwater photographic gear.\u201d<\/p>\n
Classical music? Who are these weirdos! Don\u2019t they know giant cryptid fish only respond to gangsta rap, particularly to Eazy-E and Biggie Smalls? \u201cSophisticated sonar and underwater photographic gear!\u201d When did the world become so politically correct?! Back when Alaska was great we would have busted dynamite in the lake until something weird floated up.<\/p>\n
Bruce Wright, senior scientist for the Aleutian Pribilof Island Association and Chilkat Environmental, is sure that there\u2019s something in the lake. He thinks it\u2019s likely sleeper sharks adapted to living in freshwater.<\/p>\n
\u201cSleeper sharks surprise me all the time,\u201d Wright said over the phone. For a species said to exist in every ocean, very little is known about them. I\u2019ve stuck my hand in a number of their mouths to pop hooks out while long-lining for halibut. They seemed so lethargic it didn\u2019t even occur to me there could have been potential danger. Recently, there\u2019s been more and more documentation of sleeper sharks killing sea lions and other fast moving large animals. Wright went onto say, \u201cThey eat everything and anything. I\u2019ve found chunks of gray whale, harbor seal and even chrome chum salmon in their stomachs. They target the midsection to eviscerate their prey. Sure, they\u2019re cold blooded and slow moving, but they have their moments.\u201d<\/p>\n
While sleeper sharks are associated with deep water, Wright says they frequently come to the surface during the night. Luckily, Alpacka is pretty good about repairing rafts in case I am attacked. Which means I\u2019ll long-line Lake Iliamna during the day and troll chunks of goat during the night. I\u2019ll start from Pedro Bay, in the eastern portion of the Lake, and primarily fish the north side. I plan to float my trophy \u2014 I\u2019ll settle for nothing less than a 30-footer \u2014 down the Kvichak River and look for a taxidermist in Naknek.<\/p>\n
Wright also wonders if freshwater sleeper sharks might explain the Loch Ness Monster sightings in Scotland. After my successful Iliamna expedition, book tour, and Hollywood movie, I plan to visit the Scottish Highlands and try my luck fishing there.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Bjorn Dihle is a freelance writer based in Juneau.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Next summer, I plan to fish for the Lake Iliamna Monster. I\u2019m bored of catching salmon, halibut and trout, and it doesn\u2019t look like the Feds are going to allow even catch-and-release whaling anytime soon. Stupid Marine Mammal Protection Act. I need more of a thrill, so I\u2019m borrowing a pack-raft, some long-line gear and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":7,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[149],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-20637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life","tag-outdoors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20637\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20637"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=20637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}