More strange creature sightings at Millerton Lake

Millerton Lake during the spring time. Photo courtesy of David Prasad via Flickr.

The focus on Weird Fresno lately has been heavy on the haunted spots throughout the Central Valley, as they seem to be the most prolific. But I love a good creature sighting and when I received an e-mail the other night (while I was at Channel Road no less) about yet another creature sighting that occurred at Millerton Lake, I knew I had to share.

According to the person who e-mailed me, it was 1975 and he and his wife went on a camping trip up at Millerton Lake one weekday. He describes the lake as being very calm and the water was "smooth as glass". As he and his wife were enjoying the view they noticed a wake forming on the surface of the water. Suddenly a large head surfaces and then dives back down into the water quickly followed by the back of the creature (the witness said he didn't see a tail). As it completed it's dive it left a huge wake behind. He goes on to estimate that it was at least 30 feet in length and that the only way he could describe it was it appeared similar to the descriptions of the Loch Ness monster.

The next day as they were leaving the couple came across a gas station and decided to gas up. There he noticed a bulletin board with news clippings with telling about different sightings of the creature he saw the previous day.

Now I know I've reported on giant catfish sightings in the past, but the description of the wake seems similar to this story I wrote about back in March of 2010 where another witness saw a large mass swimming around leaving a big wake behind it. Could this be the same thing that was seen back in '76? And if so, what the hell is beneath the surface of Millerton Lake?

Another strange creature sighted at Millerton Lake

Something strange lurks underneath the waters of Millerton Lake.

Earlier this week I received a phone call on the Weird Fresno hotline (yes I have a hotline) from a local resident who said he and his family witnessed something strange on their outing to Millerton Lake on Sunday. What's even more interesting is that a ranger that was on patrol there, saw the same thing. The person then found this website by doing a Google search for any strange Millerton sightings. Below is a transcript of the phone call.

I found your website while trying to figure out what I saw at Millerton Lake on this past Sunday. I'm not sure what it was in the lake, it was huge and it was making waves and there was nobody else out there.

I was on the dam with my family. It was bizare because after you saw these waves and something out there, some kind of mass, a ranger boat came up to where this was going on and was looking for whatever was causing it. And I'm pretty sure it saw what it was, because it was circling it.

So I'm not sure what it was, could have been a giant catfish or some giant fish. But it was very large. I would say maybe, from my distance it was about 200 yards away, I would say maybe about fifteen, maybe twenty feet long and the width of it was maybe about ten feet. It was rather large and that's the reason why probably the ranger saw it from afar, because you could see it from afar it was that big.

It was making lots of waves and then it dissapeared once the ranger showed up and the ranger hung around there for about, I would say for about fifteen minutes circling it. I heard some weird-like noises, like from the boat I don't know if he was singing or what. It was just bizare. My wife was there, she saw it as well.

The person also gave me his contact information and a follow up call is planned, but this has me wondering. I had posted several months ago about a giant catfish sighting also at Millerton Lake, but I has just assumed that it was just a "tall tale" told by someone to someone that was told to someone else, etc. and really didn't have much truth to it. But this sighting has me wondering what the hell is lurking under the waters by the dam.

I'm hoping to plan a small excursion to Millerton sometime in the near future. If so I'll post anything I find on here. That is if I'm not eaten by the damn thing.

Giant Catfish in Fresno County's Millerton Lake?

I remember the first time I went fishing with my stepfather(I was around nine or so) and he told me this story of a friend of his who had supposedly seen a giant catfish in Millerton Lake.

The story goes that the man was fishing around the Friant Dam, when, while he was moving around, accidentally knocked off the boat motor. He was able to make it to shore using the trolling motor, but decided that he wanted to try to retrieve the motor as it was new and he had paid a lot for it.

The man rented some dive equipment and returned the next weekend. To lift his motor back to the surface, he took with him several large balloons that he would fill with a small auxiliary tank that would lift the motor back to the surface. After descending to the bottom, he began searching for his motor. After several minutes he came across something that he wouldn't have believed if he hadn't seen it for himself. Staring at him was an extremely large catfish. According to him the mouth was so big it could have easily have swallowed him. He estimated the length to be between 8-10' long. This was a quick estimate has he didn't stick around long enough to get a thorough look at it. Needless to say he got the hell out of there and never did retrieve his motor.

Now I don't know if this story is just another variant of the big fish that got away or something else, but I thought it was worth mentioning. I know back east, especially in the south large catfish have been known to be caught. Some even match the descriptions that I mentioned above. And catfish do have a fast growth rate, and they continue to grow all there life.

I wouldn't be surprised if there were several large catfish at the bottom of Millerton Lake near the dam hiding where no one will bother them. Their only company a forgotten motor boat engine that has long since rusted away.