Vermilion Bay Area...Bigfoot?

[DanR]

Ok, so it's the offseason, but we all know and love the Dryden and Vermilion Bay area. So, I was watching the History Channel and they had that MonsterQuest show on. They were researching Bigfoot sightings at Snelgrove Lake in Ontario (this is a fly-in Walleye and Pike lake, maybe 100 miles or so north of Dryden). Then I remembered the Bigfoot statue in Vermilion Bay. So I looked up "sightings" of Bigfoot in the area, and there are some. I guess that statue is a monument to some famous Vermilion Bay sighting years ago.

I've personally never seen anything. But my thoughts are that *something* does exist. There are too many stories in native American folklore about some sort of large bipedal hairy animal. There's too many unexplained sightings. Is it some sort of mutated bear? Or is it really some sort of rare unclassified animal?

So, my question is...has anyone seen anything up there while fishing or hunting? Or do any of the guides or local people who read this site have any old family stories they can post? (Cmon Jaeger, I know you got some stories from when your parents ran their lodge. :D)

I know, I'm going out on a limb here. :) But it's the offseason, and there's not really much else to talk about!! I'm really interested in some real stories/folklore of the area.

-Dan

[Alexnsw]

Come on Scotty. WE all know that you have a story about this. And to add to this does anyone have any really cool animal stories?(after the bigfoot stories are done). I know that you have some cool stories herbie

Alex

[Steve Herbeck]

??????
what the #@&*?
there ain't no big foot or other mysteries here.
just wolves, bears,moose deer,and other native wildlife though there are substantiated reports of cougars being seen in the past few years.
now there are visitors to our area and locals which i guess could be classified as hairy bipedal specimans with size 13+ feet does that consitute as a bigfoot?
i'd rather talk about fishing,hunting,vaca plans,travel questions,presentations,patterns,etc

[Musky_John]

DanR,
Let's face it any large bipedal hairy animal sighting must involve too much firewater (i.e., Crown Royal). Let's stick to the facts and the large slimy multi-finned toothy monsters that swim in the depths of Eagle Lake.

[Alexnsw]

OK on the large toothy fish, do you guys ever catch lakers during late season musky trips? And conversely when you target lakers do you catch the occasional musky?

Just wondering,
Alex

[DanR]

Herbie's response is classic. But you gotta admit, at least I got people posting on the board again!! :D HAHA.

So, what will next year bring? More bigfoot sightings? Haha. Ok, ok, seriously. Next year, I hope it will be a more normal spring for everyone up there and get the patterns going earlier for everyone. As much as I sit back and say to myself, "Holy cr@p, I caught a 54" in 2008."...I am more excited than ever about Musky Fishing. Will I ever beat it? I don't know. But I'm still relatively young, and I believe Eagle is THE destination to beat the 54" it burped up for me this past season.

More reasonably, while I am fishing trying to beat my personal best, I wouldn't mind getting one of those big heavy West Arm fish with the snow white bellies, and all the pretty markings one of these years. Doesn't have to be bigger than my best, but definitely over 50" would be nice. And maybe a trophy tiger Musky one of these years as I've never caught one of those.

As we head into 2009, I hope everyone is happy and healthy. From there, being able to fish for the giants of Eagle is all gravy!!

And who knows, maybe one of these years, I'll see Bigfoot up there too. :p ;)

-Dan

[Steve Herbeck]

once the lake turns over and water temps drop into the low 50's-40's lakers start dispersing and scattering over the northern and western sections of the lake as they can now move freely without having to stay in the deeper trout holes as is during the summer months because of the cold water temps and oxygen from top to bottom in all sections.the reverse occurs as we go from spring to summer and a migration back to the trout holes.
during these late and early periods we occasionally catch trout and usually bigger ones 12-25# while fishing muskies in the fall especially on cranks like raiders and gramas and or fishing walleyes,pike,bass in the spring with plastics,raps,little joes,jigs,etc.
we have caught and or heard of some muskies being caught fishing trout deep in the deeper trout holes in the summer but more fishing higher above the thermocline for suspended walleyes or when the trout are up feeding higher. i have had several big ones on and heard of some big ones caught during early-mid june while fishing trout that were still high in the water column but suspended over the deeper water as many post spawn muskies go out over deeper water and suspend while recouperating before coming back in shallow for the warmer water and developing weed beds.