Phantoms and Monsters: Pulse of the Paranormal

Five summers ago, I got a job with the Freshwater Fisheries Society of B.C. teaching people how to fish on Vancouver Island. I lived out of Duncan, about an hour north of Victoria. I spent my summer teaching people to fish and my time off chasing rainbow and brown trout in the Cowichan River and smallmouth bass in other area lakes.

One day in August I decided to try out Thetis Lake just north of Victoria. I didn't have a boat at the time but heard that it had pretty good shore access, so I decided to give it a try.

Sure enough, there was a great walking path around the lake, and the action was pretty steady including one solid 3+ pounder on a tube bait. I was having a blast exploring this new lake when I came to the realization that daylight was fading fast. After a few more casts, and more than one "last cast" I hustled back to the parking lot.

It was completely deserted. My mustang was the last car there. As an experienced urban fisherman, being the last guy in the parking lot was nothing new at all but just as I was entertaining myself with this thought, I heard something moving through the bushes behind the car. Being the scaredy cat I am, I rushed into the car, shoved my rods into the passenger seat and fumbled for my keys. As I did this I happened to glance into my rearview mirror where I saw a man running towards me.

Now, if this were a horror movie, this would've been the part where the car didn't start.

Thankfully it did, and not a moment too soon as the figure was rapidly catching up. As I put it into gear, he made one last lunge for the passenger side door, where his hand smacked against the handle.

I peeled out of the parking lot and didn't check the rearview until I was on the Malahat highway. I tried to calm myself during the ride home, but I was definitely rattled thinking about what had just happened.

When I got back to the place I was staying in Duncan, I pulled into the driveway and was about to go inside when I decided to take a look at the spot on my car where the man had struck it.

As I walked towards it I stared dumbfounded at what I saw. Five scratch-marks with patches of fish scales strewn throughout.

I didn't sleep well that night, and when I went into work the next morning I just had to tell somebody what happened. That somebody was my co-worker. For the sake of anonymity let's call her V. V listened patiently to my entire story, but I was taken aback when she didn't even seem surprised at the ending.

The following dialogue went something like this:

Me: This doesn't surprise you?
V: No, not really.
Me: Wow, you must think I'm really full of crap then?
V: Ha, no. Just a little. Actually, I've heard stories like this before. It was the Thetis Lake Monster.
Me: You're kidding.
V: Not at all. It's a real thing.
Me: There's an actual monster that lives there and terrorizes people?
V: Go look it up.

And I did. And after doing so, I had to admit, it sounded a lot like what I encountered that August night on Vancouver Island.

And I haven't been back to Thetis Lake since. - worldfishingnetwork

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The Thetis Lake Monster Legend

As we have seen in some movies, the deep lakes are sometimes the home of some ghastly and terrifying creatures. Thetis Lake in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada is not an exception. Many cryptozoology advocates have claimed that the mentioned lake houses a man-sized, silvery-scaled, gill-bearing humanoid.

The Victoria Daily Times reported that the creature attacked two teenagers on the lake on the 19th of August, 1972. The two boys, namely, Robin Flewellyn and Gordon Pike, were standing next to the recreation center on Thetis Lake when they saw a scaly creature emerge from the lake and move unto the shoreline. It was, as they had described, roughly triangle shaped, with dark, large, bulging fish-like eyes and mouth, and a razor-sharp spike on the top of its head. Its weight is estimated to be 120 lbs, and measures around 5 feet tall, and 5 feet wide. The two teens were terrified at the sight of the huge scaly amphibious monster and they ran for their lives.

With its sporting webbed extremities, the creature chased the two teenagers until a few distance from the lake. The voracious predator was able to catch up with one of the young men, lacerating his hand with its razor-pointed head.

The two lads, still filled with terror after narrowly escaping the grisly creature, rushed to the nearest Royal Canadian Mountain Police station and told the officers about the incident on Thetis Lake. They showed them the cut that was claimed to have been caused by the razor-sharp fin of the lake monster. The authorities felt sincerity on the story of the two boys, hence they immediately launched a manhunt, or should I better say, “monsterhunt”, on the said lake. However, nothing turned up during that time of investigation.

The case was almost taken for granted until four days after, August 23 of the same year, at around 3:30 in the afternoon, Russell Van Nice and Mike Gold claimed to have seen the same creature from the opposite side of the Thetis Lake. But unlike the report of the two teens that were pursued by the creature, this time, it only emerged from the lake, looked around, and submerged itself back into the water.

Gold and Nice described the monster-faced creature as having a human-like body, of at least 5 feet tall. It has silver-colored scaly skin, a sharp point protruding on its head, and very big ears and horrifying eyes. Today, even if there were no more sightings reported since the 23rd of August, 1972, many cryptozoology fans still consider the Thetis Lake Monster as a real Canadian Cryptid.

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SIMILAR THETIS LAKE MONSTER ACCOUNT

First brought to international attention in the early 1970's, this grisly aberration of natural selection has been described as being nearly 5-feet tall and weighing approximately 120 lbs., with an epidermis consisting soley of silver scales. This animal's horrifying visage is made complete by the six, razor-sharp spikes - connected to one another by a thin, membranous webbing - which are said to protrude from its amphibious skull.

With it's dark, bulbous eyes, fish-like mouth and webbed hands, feet and ears, the Thetis Lake Monster bears more than a passing resemblance to the iconoclastic image of "The Creature From the Black Lagoon". What lends credibility to these reports however, is the fact that for centuries North Americans natives have reported numerous - and oft times fatal - encounters with various creatures which they describe as being carnivorous, aquatic-humanoids.

These man-like anomalies purportedly lurked in the mist shrouded lakes and rivers of the Pacific northwest. One of the beasts chronicled in these Native American legends was the Pugwis, which reputedly tormented the Kwakiutl Indians of the Puget Sound region for years. These accounts, of course, vastly pre-date the Thetis Lake Monster as well as its cinematic companion.

On August 19, 1972, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police launched a brief investigation into this phenomenon after two teenage boys - Robin Flewellyn and Gordon Pike - claimed to have been attacked by the creature on the shores of Thetis lake. According to the two witnesses, as they were standing on the beach near the Thetis lake recreational center when they both saw a spontaneous surging of water just off the shoreline.

Suddenly, the monstrous head and silver-scaled, torso of the creature rose from the lake and - with an almost preternatural speed - shot from the churning surf. According to their reports, this vicious creature pursued the young men almost back to their car.

Narrowly escaping this voracious predator, Flewellyn and Pike made their way to the nearest RCMP station, where one of the teens displayed a laceration across his hand, which he claimed was the result of contact with the spike-like fin that adorned the monster's skull. The officers on duty were so impressed by the sincerity of the boys' tale that an immediate manhunt (or monsterhunt, as the case may be) was Launched.

Nothing was turned up on that occasion, but just four days later, at approximately 3:30 pm. on the 23rd of August, the monster reared its head again. This time the creature - which perfectly matched previous descriptions - was seen by Mike Gold and Russell Van Nice on the opposite side of the lake.

Unlike the Flewellyn and Pike encounter of the previous week, these witnesses claim that the creature merely rose out of the water, looked around, then submerged. The men further claimed that they did not linger long enough to see whether the beast would manifest its previously displayed tendency towards aggressive behavior.

HOAX?

On 26 August 1972, The Province received a call from a man claiming to have lost a pet Tegu lizard in the area the previous year. Tegus, indigenous to Latin America and mostly carnivorous, can grow up to four feet in length. They are commonly kept as pets. The investigating police officers believed the lizard matched the description the creature and the case was closed.

Despite the sensational claims, repeated in some cryptozoology literature which portray it as a genuine cryptid and relative of the Loveland Frog, no other sightings have been reported since leading the monster sighting to be "a fact widely unknown among swimmers." Local historian Ross Crockford remarks that the advice given in Haden Blackman's 1998 The Field Guide to North American Monsters: Everything You Need to Know About Encountering Over 100 Terrifying Creatures in the Wildto carry a flaming torch to defend oneself from the monster is probably more dangerous than any monster, given the tinder-dry nature of the park.

One of the original "witnesses," Russell Van Nice has said, "it was just a big lie," his friend [Mike Gold] was, "trying to get attention." According to Van Nice, his friend was "famous" for being a habitual liar.

Cryptozoology A To Z: The Encyclopedia of Loch Monsters, Sasquatch, Chupacabras, and Other Authentic Mysteries of Nature

Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained

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