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

Are There Lake Monsters In Florida?

I recently went to Lake Tarpon, one of the largest lakes in Florida, to check out a folklore about a large monster that lives in the lake and has eaten fisherman by pulling them into the water. Is this the Florida version of Loch Ness? I went with an open mind.

I did see some movement over the water as if something was underneath. I took a good video and got some good capture stills. This project will require more work but I am hopeful that something may indeed be in this lake.

It could be an alligator but it is undulating which makes it seem to be swimming. There are over 1,000 lakes and Florida and many of them are connected by underwater caves. This lake is close to the Gulf Of Mexico and after the last ice age something may have been trapped in this body of water.

Does Florida Have A Lake Monster?

The central part of Florida has hundreds of lakes, many connected in a vast channel way that makes them popular for sports fisherman. In Polk county there is a legend of a sea monster that lives in Lake Clinch south of Lake Wales.

M.F. Hetherington wrote in his 1928 "A History of Polk County." "The Indians many years ago insisted there was an immense serpent in this lake. In 1907 residents of Frostproof declared they had seen the monster, and that it must be 30 feet long - this, too, before post-prohibition liquor was known."

In 1936 a fisherman was found dead in the lake after being mutilated by an unknown animal (alligator?).

There are manatees in the sunshine state, but they live in salt water or the marshes where the fresh and salt water meet. The saltwater crocodiles also share that environment. Descriptions of the lake monster is that it has a long neck, a dog-like head, a humped back and flippers. That sounds like a marine dinosaur.

"In the United States alone, researchers list 222 lakes and rivers as alleged cryptid habitats," Michael Newton wrote in "Florida's Unexpected Wildlife."

This is a very large and beautiful lake about a 90 minute drive from my house. I think I will get over and investigate.