- 5 months ago
River.Monsters.S02E04.Alaskan.Horror
Category
🐳
AnimalsTranscript
00:00I'm Jeremy Wade, biologist and extreme angler in search of freshwater monsters.
00:14I normally track down these beasts in the tropics.
00:18I've never searched for one in the sub-arctic before.
00:23On these lakes deep in the Alaskan wilderness, people have been going missing without trace for as long as anyone can remember.
00:29There are native myths of a monster that's killing them.
00:35People have just disappeared out of their boats.
00:38Whatever it was in the water, they were afraid to just come up and swallow them.
00:42It has no fear of taking on boats and their propellers.
00:46Motor prop, you can see teeth marks on it.
00:49There have been many strange sightings as well.
00:52He said he could see on the surface of the water a large octopus.
00:56He judged the length of the arms to be near 100 feet.
01:00I'm going to investigate whether there really is a deadly monster from the deep, killing all these people.
01:05It's quite possible this is the biggest fish that I've ever had on the end of my line.
01:10One of my obsessions is tracking down freshwater monsters throughout the world's rivers.
01:35But a story of one monster in an Alaskan lake particularly caught my imagination.
01:45There are many myths of lake monsters all around the world, from places such as Loch Ness in Scotland and Lake Tianshi in China.
01:52No one's sure these creatures have actually been seen, but this monster in Lake Clark and Iliamna is different.
01:59Since the 1940s, bush pilots have been flying over this remote area and sightings seem to be getting more and more frequent.
02:08There are reports of it being up to 20 feet long.
02:12What are these mysterious shapes in the water and are they causing people to drown and disappear into the depths without leaving a trace?
02:21People have tried to prove its existence for many years.
02:24Thirty years ago there was even a $100,000 reward put on its head.
02:29That's half a million in today's money.
02:32This kind of bounty attracted many monster hunters, from serious fishermen to someone who tried to lure it out of the water by playing music.
02:45All these attempts failed and eventually the reward was withdrawn.
02:50With still no hard proof, it would be easy to dismiss this monster as pure fantasy.
02:55But I believe these stories must have come from somewhere and there is something down there in the depths.
03:10This is my first trip to Alaska and my journey starts by going deep into its wilderness.
03:20I normally fish in the tropics and I'm out of my element in a land of bottomless icy lakes, jagged mountains and Arctic tundra.
03:31As a proportion of its population, more people go missing in this forbidding landscape than in any other state in the US.
03:39The best way into this isolated area is by plane, threading your way through narrow mountain passes where conditions can deteriorate in a moment.
03:50There are many legends of this monster.
03:53But between the smoke of the clouds and the mirrors of the lakes, could it actually exist?
04:02My investigation to find out will focus on two connected bodies of water.
04:07Lake Clark and Lake Iliamna, which together cover an area of over 1,000 square miles, roughly the size of Rhode Island.
04:16The larger of the two, Lake Iliamna is 77 miles long and 22 miles wide, making it the largest freshwater lake in Alaska.
04:25Both lakes reach staggering depths of up to 1,000 feet.
04:30With such a vast area of water, I've probably got more chance of winning the lottery than catching this monster on my own.
04:37The best way to start my search is to gain some local knowledge.
04:44There are actually quite a few communities dotted around the lakes.
04:47These are the people who will have been here literally for generations and these will be the people who have the stories about the monster.
04:53So they're the people I want to talk to.
05:14People have lived on this land for more than 7,000 years and for centuries they've fished these lakes wearing lightweight waterproof parkas made from seal gut.
05:24These isolated communities have a strong ancestral tradition of myths and legends, including the lake monster.
05:31I'm meeting up with the Hill family, who are Athabaskan native Alaskans.
05:36They have a fishing camp on the northern shore of Lake Iliamna.
05:40If you look at the shape of Iliamna Lake on the map, it has the shape of a fish.
05:46There's a large head tapering down to a tail.
05:51And the legend is that's how this lake was formed.
05:54There's this huge fish trapped by the mountains and when a fish is dying or laying on the side, it flops like that and kind of makes a hole.
06:06Some people say even the name Iliamna means a great black fish.
06:12Could this be biting holes in people's boats?
06:19People just wouldn't paint their boats a certain colour and you didn't want to paint the bottom of the boat red.
06:27I guess there's some connection between painting the bottom of your boat red and the boat disappearing.
06:34The red could have attracted the predatory monster, thinking it was blood from some injured prey.
06:44These legends of the monster are clearly ingrained within local culture.
06:48But I need to find stories of the monster that are still within living memory.
06:54And I found one on Lake Clark.
06:59Pilot and town mayor Glen Osworth Sr. recalls what happened to an aircraft mechanic in the late 1940s.
07:05The gentleman working for us was trying to catch these large lake trout, but he kept having them break the line.
07:15And so being an aircraft mechanic, he got some aircraft cable, which is very, very strong.
07:21So on his normal sort of lake trout tackle, he was just getting broken off several times.
07:26He kept...
07:27So that's when he put the cable down there.
07:28He kept getting broken off.
07:30The mechanic then fashioned his own hook and fixed it to the end of the cable.
07:35This was then tied to a washed up tree stump.
07:40He knew that he had a line there that fish would not break.
07:43And so he decided whatever kind of monster was busting off his line, that wasn't going to happen to him again.
07:50Confident that he'd get his fish this time, he left and planned to come back the next morning.
07:55A neighbor that lived by the river observed that stump passing by against the wind in the lake.
08:24And the lake was very rough.
08:25And this gentleman that observed this was very surprised that how could this tree stump be moving against the water, against the wind and the waves.
08:43Glenn has told me the exact spot where the stump, weighing nearly 200 pounds, was ripped from the shore and dragged into the water.
08:51I'm going to see what I can catch at this location.
08:57I've brought a tent with me, I've also brought my rod and I'm going to be throwing a bait into this very same area of the lake.
09:04This is not the kind of rod you'd normally see being used in fresh water.
09:10This is sort of a marine big game rod.
09:14Normally be put to use pulling in shark, marlin, tuna, that kind of thing.
09:19But everything I've heard about this place, there's stuff in here every bit as big as those animals.
09:23There's a steep drop-off that's further than I can cast the heavy line, so I'm using a kayak to get my bait to a spot where a giant might hide.
09:40Something that could drag a tree stump into the lake could easily knock a small boat over.
09:47The water in these lakes is only 50 degrees.
09:51If I was tossed into the water here, my body would seize up and I'd drown.
09:57In these icy waters, bodies sink rather than float.
10:00And at depths of up to a thousand feet, mine might never be found.
10:09With the bait out, the plan is to leave it lying on the bottom overnight.
10:14And see if I can tempt the monster onto my line.
10:19It's just a waiting game now.
10:21It's getting close to night, but during the Alaskan summer, it never gets completely dark.
10:38It's actually very strange being up in the Alaskan night because it's well after midnight now and I can see the far bank.
10:46I can see the horizon there. I can see the mist over the mountains.
10:51So it's a very sort of strange, otherworldly place.
10:59The bait has been in the water for over 12 hours.
11:02If the monster was nearby and hungry, it would have taken it by now.
11:06There's nothing there.
11:10The bait's still there.
11:16When the weather comes in, the lakes are covered in an eerie fog.
11:21I heard this story about something coming again and again for fish in the water.
11:27And I went there and offered a prime piece of fish and just nothing doing at all.
11:35The stories I've heard from the Alaskan natives shroud these lakes in myths and legends.
11:40Such as if you see the monster, a tragedy will soon befall your family.
11:46In conditions like these, the brain becomes very suggestible and it's easy for your mind to play tricks on you.
11:53I actually thought I saw something back there and I did a real double take, but I think it was just the dark, long face of a wave.
12:01And I can really imagine how if you're out here any amount of time, you know, you're going to see things possibly even if there's nothing there.
12:10This place has a special atmosphere, but I'm a rationalist.
12:14I've got to stay detached and not let my imagination get in the way.
12:22To move this investigation on, I need to find out if people have actually come into contact with the monster.
12:27Hello, Bill.
12:29I'm meeting up with Bill Trefon, who is Alaskan native Dinaina.
12:34His family has been living on Lake Clark for generations.
12:37I heard that your parents had an encounter with some large unknown creature in the lake a while ago.
12:44They were about maybe a mile out and all of a sudden their motor just stopped.
12:50My dad was going to start working on it and my mother saw where behind him a big tail came up and went down.
13:12The motor prop, you could see teeth marks on it.
13:15What did they think it was?
13:21They think it was a pike.
13:25And you've got, they're a pike in the lake? They're a big pike in the lake?
13:27Oh, yeah. There's some pikes in the lake.
13:30Did your mother have any idea how big it might have been?
13:35Judging from the tails, you thought maybe 12 feet long.
13:3912 feet.
13:40So going back generations, people say that if you actually see one of these big fish, it's actually, it's like a bad sign.
13:55They're superstitious about it, you know.
13:59They see the big fish, something will happen in your family, they don't know who or when.
14:04My mother saw it, my dad drowned it next summer.
14:07Tragedies like Bill's father drowning only help to strengthen the legends surrounding the monster.
14:17But this story has given me some vital information as to what it could be.
14:23Attacking a propeller suggests it is a sight predator.
14:26It's not some deep water scavenger, but it's active on the surface.
14:32This all fits with it being a pike, which is what Bill's mother thought she saw.
14:38To see if the pike here really can reach such a monstrous size, I have to catch one.
14:44Fish on. Fish on.
14:45I'm in a remote part of Alaska, looking for a lake monster that reportedly lives in these freezing waters.
15:02The fish the size of what I've been hearing could actually sink a boat.
15:04I've got my first suspect, a giant pike that attacked a boat, which I'm now trying to catch.
15:11This is Chilitna Bay, near where the boat was attacked and where locals say the biggest pike are.
15:18I've come across pike in warm water before, but I've no idea how big they can grow in these glacial conditions.
15:24A pike has hundreds of needle-sharp teeth that can cause serious damage to whatever it gets into its mouth, including humans.
15:34Glen Ellsworth Jr. has seen many times how voracious the pike around here can be.
15:40So you've actually seen them take birds?
15:43Yeah, I've seen them take birds, I've seen them take baby ducks and adult ducks.
15:47Adult ducks?
15:48I saw one eat a muskrat once, right in this river.
15:51And pretty much anything they can fit their mouth around.
15:53Right.
15:56If a four- or five-foot pike can eat waterfowl and mammals, it seems logical that a 12-footer could be a man-eater.
16:03So what I've got here, I've got a lure that's sending out very, very strong signals.
16:08It's a very bright flash and a very strong, vibrating throb.
16:13And I guess, actually, that was probably what was happening when that fish went for that propeller as well.
16:17Fish on! Fish on! Fish on! Fish on! Fish on!
16:25Oh, that's a nice-sized fish. That's a nice-sized fish. Here we go. That's going again.
16:31That's a nice fish.
16:33Going under the boat. I don't want to go up the other side of the boat. Look at that! Lovely fish!
16:36Deep, lovely, clear water, so you can see the fish really well.
16:41Right, I'll clear it.
16:48A lovely Alaskan pike.
16:51Just do a quick measure here.
16:53And 40 inches. Lovely fish.
16:56A 40-inch pike is probably around 20 years old.
17:00The thing about a pike, if there's ever a fish where, you know, the way it looks tells you about the way it lives, I mean, that is the pike.
17:07I mean, it's, you know, head full of teeth at one end, not just on the jaws but on the tongue, on the gill rake as well.
17:14And they have eyes that make them a deadly sight predator.
17:18You can really see here these sighting grooves, sort of converging on the prey here.
17:24So a bit like sighting grooves on a rifle.
17:27And they can just judge the distance to the prey.
17:30And they're so wonderfully camouflaged here, just blending into weed.
17:34Very long, streamlined shape.
17:36And then you've got the dorsal fin right at the back of the body, so you've got a big propulsion unit.
17:40Soon as that prey comes within range, it lunges.
17:44And once it's in those teeth, there's just no getting away.
17:47A perfect predator, this fish.
17:52There she goes.
17:59I've seen that pike can certainly be aggressive.
18:02They'll hit a piece of vibrating, flashing metal on the end of a line.
18:09I suppose that once in a while they might possibly hit a boat propeller.
18:12But the thing that's bothering me is that Biltrofon's mother talked about seeing something that was 12 foot long.
18:20And pike just don't get that big.
18:23They'd be really pushed to reach even half that length.
18:25And at that size, they're not going to be knocking anybody out of a boat and they're not going to be posing a threat to anybody in the water.
18:32So I'm doubtful that what Biltrofon's parents encountered actually was a pike.
18:36But I do believe that what they encountered could have been the lake monster.
18:41But what is there in the water that can reach that kind of size?
18:44Something monstrous could have come in from the sea and into Lake Iliamna.
18:54Connecting the two is the Kuijak River, which is 50 miles long.
18:58I've just seen some dark specks on a tiny little island down there hauled out on some gravel.
19:06And those are freshwater seals.
19:07Now this is one of very, very few places in the world where you have seals in freshwater.
19:12And it does bring home the fact that although we call this expanse of water a lake, it's just so huge.
19:17And if the seals have managed to get in here from the ocean, it does make you wonder what else might have gone in as well.
19:22Salmon sharks, a close relative of the Great White, have been seen in the area.
19:28But they can't live in freshwater, so that has to rule them out.
19:32But there is one animal around Alaska's shores that's big enough to be the monster and can survive in freshwater.
19:44What is the longest lived aquatic animal?
19:47Is it A, koi carp, B, quahog clam, or C, bowhead whale?
19:55The answer, when we return.
19:59I asked, what is the longest lived aquatic animal?
20:03The answer is B, the quahog clam.
20:06One discovered off the coast of Iceland was 405 years old.
20:09I'm deep in the Alaskan wilderness in search of a lethal lake monster.
20:20I've eliminated my fur suspects, pike and salmon sharks.
20:25I'm now finding out what could have got into a lake from the sea.
20:29Beluga whales are big enough to be the monster and can live in both salt and freshwater.
20:35Could they have swum up the Quijack River into Lake Iliana?
20:40The shallowest part of the river is the braids, a labyrinthine area of channels.
20:46And they'd have to swim through here to get into the lake.
20:49My pilot, Glen Allsworth Jr, knows the area well.
20:52This looks like about, what, five or six miles like this?
20:57Yeah, there's about five miles where it's braided this way.
21:01And on the deeper channels, of course, you can see the darker blue water where the deeper channels are,
21:07and then the lighter brown where there's more silt deposit.
21:09This water down here, I mean, there looks to be some pretty good channels through.
21:17I think, you know, you've certainly got eight or nine foot in places.
21:20I mean, it might come up to two or three here and there.
21:23But apparently people navigate these waterways with prop boats, you know, without chewing up their propellers.
21:29So it definitely looks as if there's enough water for belugas to get up into the lake.
21:40The thing about belugas is that they are mammals.
21:42They breathe air, so they have to surface regularly.
21:45And in that case, even with the sparse human population around the lake,
21:49the sightings would be much more common than they have been.
21:52Whatever the monster is, it's something that stays submerged and hidden for long periods of time.
22:00On top of that, the people here, they know what belugas look like.
22:05If the lake monster was a beluga, frankly, it wouldn't be a mystery.
22:11I'm drawing a bit of a blank with suspects so far, so I'm going to come at this from a different angle.
22:17I'll investigate the monster's potential food source.
22:21Legends of the famous Loch Ness monster have been dismissed by some
22:24because there isn't enough food in the lake to support an animal of that size.
22:29Is there enough food in Lake Iliamna to feed a monster?
22:34There is one event each year in these waters that could be what I'm looking for.
22:39Every July, there is the world's largest run of sockeye salmon.
22:43I'm normally busy catching river monsters in the warmest parts of the world, and fishing for salmon is totally new to me.
22:54This is bear country, and they depend on the salmon run for food.
22:58So I'll be in direct competition with them for the best fishing spots.
23:04We're only about 65 miles from where self-styled grizzly expert Timothy Treadwell and his girlfriend were eaten alive by a hungry grizzly.
23:13Carrying a gun at all times is common practice in the Alaskan wilderness, and in case a bear does attack, my pilot Glenn Ellsworth Jr. is carrying a .50 caliber handgun.
23:25The bears may have already found a good fishing spot.
23:30Just literally, I don't know, sort of 15 feet from where I'm standing, there's been a steady procession of fish through, working their way upstream.
23:38And there's also some big dark groups holding as well further down, so I'm quite looking forward to getting a line in the water.
23:43There are no bears in sight, so it seems safe to try and catch my first salmon.
23:53When sockeye salmon come out of the sea and enter fresh water, the males undergo a monstrous transformation.
24:00They develop a hooked jaw and grow teeth to defend their spawning grounds.
24:05Not only that, both the males and females turn red and stop feeding, so they won't go for any bait or fly.
24:12What you're doing is you're casting out, you've got a lump of lead here, and you flick it 45 degrees upstream.
24:18It comes down, and the fish are all facing upstream, and the idea is, you know, they've got their mouths open.
24:24That just gets in their mouth, that panics them, they run, and as they run, that ends up in the mouth.
24:32So it feels like a strike, and that will be in the mouth, probably like that.
24:37But they're not actually going for it. That's the theory, I'm going to see if I can put that into practice.
24:42Time to try and get my first salmon.
24:46There you go, you got it.
24:48Ah, we got it.
24:50I actually hooked one.
24:51That was a bit of a surprise.
24:52I was, the line just was ticking down, and they haven't really spooked off too far.
24:56Just ticking down, it just stopped, and I think I was a bit too surprised.
24:59I think I just pulled, I should have sort of actually tried to set the hook a bit more on that one.
25:03With this many salmon around, it's not long before the bears start returning to their fishing spot.
25:10Here's a bear just coming out of the brush on the far side.
25:13Whereabouts is it, Glenn?
25:14He's just looking out of the brush, watching for salmon.
25:16Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
25:17I mean, that's a very definite fisherman's posture, isn't it?
25:20Even though it's a, yeah.
25:21You can tell he's ready to pounce down in the water.
25:22Yeah.
25:25Within minutes, three large grizzlies have surrounded us.
25:30Our day on the river has suddenly become dangerous.
25:43I'm on a quest to find the Alaskan lake monster.
25:46I've eliminated some suspects, and I'm now seeing if there is enough food in these lakes even to sustain it.
25:53I'm trying to catch a salmon, which could be a food source for the monster, and I'm surrounded by deadly bears.
26:00Grizzlies are considered by some to be the most dangerous of all bears.
26:03They can grow up to 1,500 pounds and run at 30 miles an hour.
26:09Humans are wise to keep a safe distance.
26:12This is absolutely typical.
26:13You find a good spot, somebody else comes in and tries to LB you out.
26:16But I think, I think in this case, I'm going to make a graceful retreat.
26:22Once they've moved off a bit, I can carry on trying to catch my first salmon.
26:27But these grizzlies are putting me to shame.
26:31Ah!
26:34Ah!
26:35Fantastic to see these bears close up. I wasn't really expecting that.
26:44You can see they're semi-aquatic, but I don't think this is the lake monster.
26:48But I think you could call it, in some ways, a bit of a river monster.
26:51Ah!
27:01Here we go!
27:05Believe it or not, this is the first salmon I've ever had on the end of my line.
27:09This is a fish that can swim hundreds of miles up these fast-flowing rivers to get to its spawning grounds,
27:16so it can put up a strong fight.
27:18All right, the fish has done me a favour. It actually has turned off the main flow.
27:21I'm so engrossed with catching a salmon, at first I don't notice our interested onlooker.
27:28Out of the water, out of the water.
27:33Right, it's coming.
27:34OK, OK, right.
27:36I think...
27:38We're going to run and break the fish off.
27:42I think it...
27:44Oh!
27:46No.
27:47Hey, is it on the fish?
27:48This bear is clearly not afraid of us, and that's a problem.
27:53Shall we just break it off?
27:55No.
27:57We're going to break the...
27:58No, we're just going to break the fish off.
28:00This is a young grizzly, but although not fully grown, it could still attack and kill any one of us.
28:06Chicken apple fish.
28:08Luckily, it's more interested in the salmon than us.
28:13It took my fish, and a minute later, it's back for more.
28:16This time, we need to fire a warning shot.
28:20I am going to fire away.
28:22He's getting too pussy.
28:23Whoa!
28:24No!
28:26You guys, plug your ears.
28:31Just deep breaths, just calm down.
28:33It's all part of the day in the life of a fisherman in this part of the world.
28:37Even after a warning shot, the bear won't leave, so it's best that my film crew and I get out.
28:46Be careful, there's that one deeper hole.
28:48I didn't quite succeed in landing my first salmon, but it's clear that they are a vital food source to the whole area.
28:54With millions of salmon coming in every year, and fish like pike in these waters year-round,
28:59I'm convinced that there is enough food to sustain the monster I've been hearing about.
29:05Back on the trail of a monster, my investigation has taken a leap forward.
29:10This could be the breakthrough I've needed.
29:12I'm meeting up with Robin Levine, who saw the monster last year while coming into land on Lake Iliamna.
29:19Hello.
29:21Robin's an anthropologist who works on these lakes, studying subsistence fishing by the Alaska native people.
29:27And it was around here you saw the monster as well, I gather.
29:30Yes, the Iliamna Lake monster.
29:32She's trained to observe things accurately, so has a clear description of what she saw.
29:36Robin is going to show me exactly where she saw the monster from the air.
29:49Oh, there's the drop-off, yeah?
29:51Now you see the clear shallow right over there?
29:53Yeah.
29:55Um, that's where we saw it.
29:57Right there.
29:58It was over on that very clear patch.
30:00Oh, really?
30:01We probably had a good 30 to 40 seconds, maybe longer, to see it.
30:11Initially I thought it was a seal, but almost immediately after that thought crossed my mind,
30:16I realized it was far too big to move differently.
30:21It had a long, broad head, blunt-to-nose.
30:25There were very distinct pectoral fins, fins on the side of the fish.
30:34What about the size of this?
30:36As we were pulling into the bay where we were landing,
30:40and my friend was coming to pick us up in his boat,
30:43I estimated that what we saw was about the same size as his boat,
30:48and that's 15, 18 feet long.
30:5018 feet is the same size as three of me, end-to-end,
30:57and much bigger than what Biltrophon's mother saw attacking her boat.
31:04It looks so normal.
31:05I've seen meluga from the air.
31:07I've seen seals from the air.
31:09It looked a part of the natural environment,
31:11and I'm sure there was some obvious explanation for what we saw.
31:16This is the breakthrough I needed.
31:21A graphic description of its shape from somebody who saw it very recently,
31:25and who observed it clearly for some time.
31:28And from her description, the thing that struck me most was how much she emphasized its fins.
31:34Now, on a normal fish seen from above, like the salmon,
31:37you don't normally see the fins because they're tucked in or folded away.
31:39But there are certain fish where, particularly the petrol fins behind the head,
31:44really stick out, a bit like wings almost.
31:48This is a crucial bit of the description,
31:51and I now really do think I have my prime suspect.
31:59All I've got to do now is catch it.
32:01There it is! There it is! There it is!
32:02My quest to prove if there is a monster in these deep Alaskan lakes is now well underway.
32:21I finally had the big breakthrough I needed,
32:23an eyewitness account of the monster from last year.
32:27It was over on that very clear patch.
32:29Oh, really?
32:30Yeah.
32:34I've now got a strong suspicion that the monster I've been looking for is a white sturgeon.
32:39It's a living dinosaur that has changed very little over 65 million years.
32:44Their range is all along the west coast of North America,
32:48from mid-California all the way up to Alaska.
32:51They can survive in both salt and fresh water,
32:54and I've also seen how the river that connects Lake Iliamna to the sea
32:57is easily deep enough for them to swim up.
33:01Even though they're bottom feeders, they have an interesting behaviour.
33:06They can jump out of the water.
33:08In recent years, a close relative of theirs, the Gulf sturgeon,
33:12has been seriously injuring people in Florida.
33:15Could jumping white sturgeon in Lake Iliamna and Lake Clark
33:18be the basis of the myths of fishermen going missing?
33:24Could they be causing people to disappear,
33:26knocking them out of their boats and into the freezing water?
33:33To prove my case, what I need to do is to get my hands on a big sturgeon.
33:36However, what we're talking about here is an absolutely immense body of water,
33:42where nobody has ever caught one, and where the sightings are,
33:45you know, they're less than once a year.
33:47So, to get one on the end of the line, you know, if I had 40, 50 years,
33:51I might be in with half a chance, but realistically, it's just not going to happen here.
33:56My challenge has always been to catch this monster,
33:59and by hook or by crook, I'm going to get one.
34:03With the odds stacked against me here,
34:05I'm leaving Alaska and going down to the Columbia River
34:08on the Oregon-Washington border.
34:10Here, they have a large population of white sturgeon,
34:14and I'll have a much better chance of catching one.
34:18This will be another first for me.
34:20I've never caught a white sturgeon before,
34:22and I hear they can put up an incredible fight.
34:26This line, although it's very fine,
34:27is actually, it actually has a breaking strain of 100 pounds.
34:32It's braided line.
34:34The thing about this is, though, it's nice and supple.
34:37So, you know, that's not going to sort of drag a lot in the water.
34:41But another thing about it is it's got, well, it's got no stretch,
34:44virtually no stretch compared to nylon, monofilament, normal fishing line.
34:47And what that means is if I hook a big fish with this,
34:50I haven't got that elasticity of the line.
34:52You know, I'm going to feel everything very, very directly up here.
34:55So, you know, it's going to be quite a physical struggle with the fish on this gear.
35:03So, just one final detail.
35:05What we're using here is a barbless hook.
35:08There's no barb on there.
35:10And that's very much about just sort of looking after the fish.
35:12We need to go quick.
35:13We're on the back end.
35:14We're on the back end.
35:17I'm going to drop this bait into about 80 feet of water.
35:21So, there we go. It's fully rigged.
35:28I think it's still sinking.
35:30It's going down in that 80 foot of water and that will just bump the bottom there.
35:35Bring it in there.
35:39That's fine.
35:43Oh!
35:45That's a bit of a knock again there.
35:47Bit of a knock. There's something definitely interesting there.
35:49It's at that point where all your imaginings about what's under the water.
36:06They are, well, they're starting to take shape.
36:09Whatever it is, is on the end of that line.
36:10But that line is so fine.
36:13The water here is pretty deep.
36:1570 foot or so.
36:17I'm attached to something.
36:22There it is!
36:23There it is!
36:25There it is!
36:26My first white sturgeon.
36:28And the animal I think can easily grow to become a lake monster.
36:33It's a bit of a tug of war, this.
36:34I just bring it up.
36:35And then...
36:39Hook out!
36:40While taking the hook out, my chance to finally see the monster up close eludes me.
36:45Oh!
36:49That was a very, very brief contact with the animal there.
36:52I was leaning over the side.
36:53That was...
36:54I couldn't reach out as far as I wanted.
36:56The sturgeon are clearly here, and that one was about five feet long.
37:00But I want a larger one.
37:01White sturgeon can grow to about 20 feet.
37:05In there.
37:09It's not long before I get my next bite.
37:12And this one feels much bigger.
37:32This fish could be bigger than I am.
37:34When the fish wants to go, I'm letting it go.
37:36But I'm letting it go under pressure.
37:39It's having to work for the line it takes away.
37:42And then when the fish takes a bit of a breather,
37:45I'm hoping, you know, in those little gaps, I can gain a wee bit of line.
37:49I think we might have to...
38:00Might be an idea to cast off.
38:04Jack, I think it might help if we cast off.
38:07Are we going? Are we on our way?
38:09This is a long, long run.
38:11We're running out of line here.
38:13We're running out of line.
38:15You need to go quick.
38:16We're on the backing.
38:17We're on the backing.
38:19Wait a minute. Wait a minute.
38:30Look at this line. This is the backing.
38:32I think I may have hooked a monster, but I'm running out of line.
38:36That's the end of my line there.
38:37Off the reel.
38:38I want to get the proper line back on the reel.
38:41Right, there we are. We've got the line back on the reel here.
38:44That was hairy. I was just watching my line going.
38:48That line's coming up in the water.
38:52There's the fish. There's the fish. There it is.
38:54There we go. There we go. There we go.
38:57There we go.
38:59I've seen the fish now.
39:01That is certainly a big fish.
39:03It's taken me half an hour to bring the sturgeon in.
39:06Knowing that this is only around half the length they can grow to,
39:10I now totally believe that a larger one could drag a tree stump into the water.
39:17That was a tiring fight. I've caught some big fish in freshwater.
39:20This is probably...
39:22This is probably the biggest freshwater fish I've caught.
39:24About 300 pounds, this one.
39:26It's, you know, a real monstrous fish.
39:29That's actually 105 or even 106 inches.
39:34That's 8 foot 10 inches.
39:37Nearly 9 foot.
39:39Nearly 9 foot, this fish.
39:41That's quite a thought. That's one and a half times me.
39:43At 9 feet, this fish is roughly 80 years old.
39:46But they can live to over 100.
39:48This looks big in the water.
39:50But these things grow to 20 foot, possibly even more.
39:53And I mean, just imagine seeing that in the water.
39:56I mean, you could be forgiven for saying that was a monster.
39:59Up to 20 feet long matches all the descriptions I've heard about the monster,
40:04including robins.
40:06Plus the pectoral fins and the long streamlined body fit how she described what she saw.
40:11But what about the teeth marks on the propeller?
40:15Just take a little look at the mouth here.
40:17Although it's, you know, you could say it's predatory, it's eaten quite a large dead fish.
40:23But there's no teeth in there at all.
40:24I can put my hands in there.
40:26See, it's almost, it's very telescopic.
40:28You can imagine that just extending and literally just sucking in a small fish.
40:33Having only gums means it couldn't have been teeth marks on the propeller.
40:38But I think I know what caused them.
40:40And what's interesting about a sturgeon, it hasn't got a bony skeleton the way we have
40:44or the way most other fish has.
40:45It's just got cartilage.
40:46But what it has got, it's got bony plates on the outside of the body.
40:50Not totally covering it, but just in rows.
40:51And these are, you know, some form of protection.
40:53They really are, you know, sort of quite tough bits of bone.
40:57There we go.
40:59And also a very bony head, very bony gill flap as well.
41:03I believe Bill Trefon's parents actually ran over a white sturgeon.
41:08And the propeller going over its bony plates caused what looked like teeth marks.
41:13It may not have any teeth, but this mouth is perfectly formed for being a bottom feeder, eating mollusks and small fish.
41:21This would explain why it is so rarely seen on Lake Iliamna or Lake Clark.
41:26Because it spends most of its time in up to a thousand feet of water.
41:29On the rare occasions when they do come to the surface, this could be what is causing some people to disappear.
41:38They're jumping.
41:40Nobody knows why they jump out of the water.
41:42Maybe it's a panic reaction to being disturbed.
41:45But when they do, an airborne giant could easily knock somebody out of their boat and into the icy depths.
41:52This all makes me convinced that the Alaskan Lake monster is actually a small landlocked population of white sturgeon.
41:58But I mean, so impressive just to get close to an animal like that and to actually touch it and look at it close up.
42:05And I really think that for a few moments there, I was actually in the presence of the creature that is the Lake monster.
42:12Want more of the world's wildest, strangest and most terrifying freshwater horrors?
42:22Visit our website at animalplanet.com slash rivermonsters