George McGee recounts his Lake Tarpon monster sighting

A video still from Lake Tarpon

Tim,
I have seen a lake monster. It was in 2006. Two friends and myself were in my 1979 Mohawk 17 foot canoe. We paddled out a short distance into Lake Tarpon from the dock at John Chestnut Park and turned south entering Brooker Creek. After going quite a way past the bridge at Eastlake, we turned around and headed back the way we came. We passed a large alligator which I estimated to be around 11 or 12 feet in length. Minutes later as we paddled our overloaded canoe low in the water, the man at the bow says, “George, look!” and points to a spot just off the Starboard bow only 15 feet away. Looking past him I saw a black coil, like a serpent perhaps 12 inches in diameter, undulating at a quick flowing pace out and back into the black, tannin stained water. The shiny black skin had the look of an eel rather than a snake. 5 to 7 feet of the creature rose and fell in the 3 second sighting before the whole mass submerged. I would say at least 30 feet of eel swam by. The man in the back of the canoe could not see past us and missed out on seeing it. There is a legend of a Lake Tarpon monster, Tarpie. My assessment: A remarkably old eel, probably a female no longer able to reproduce with a hormonal abnormal growth disorder.
George McGee, Enigmatic Anomalies