Charlevoix county herald. (East Jordan, Mich.) 189?-1953, 1915-01-02
REV. c. F. AKED'S
BIG FISH STORY
The Strange Monster He En-
countered in the Chilly Wet
crs of Red Eagle Lake
HE SAYS IT TRULY TERRIFIED HIM
Had Head Like ST. Bernard Dogs,
and Got Away With About 500
Worth Of His Fishing Tackle.

and Got Away With About 500
Worth of His Fishing Tackle.
NEW YORK.-Rev. c. F. Aked,
formerly pastor of the Rockefeller
Baptist Church in New York City, is
responsible for the following fish /
story:
What follows is fact-unadorned,
unexaggerated fact l could not have
dreamed it. | cannot even now that
l have begun to put pen to paper
hope to tell il in such way as TO
bring the scene with realizing ear
brother anglers.
IL was evening. / was on Red
Eagle lake, in the Glacier National
Park, alone in my little canvas boat.
The fishing had been good. l was
returning to camp satisfied. The
sack of fish, my fishing kit, discarded
tackle, the net, etc, lying at the bot
tom Of the boat, 1t seemed safer to
leave the rod to poke out over the
stern, the flies trailing the water
out of mischief, as l thought, where
they could not get tangled with any
of the truck.
So / rowed along gently, happy in
the slaughter had accomplished and
wishing my friends had been with me
to do their share. And the rod shot
my very eyes,
j had the presence of mind not to
make a forward dart and grab for
1t as it disappeared. Such a violent
movement would undoubtedly have
collapsed my collapsible boat | sat
in speechless amazement, too startled
for, thought
And then close Dy a mighty splash
ing and plunging. l turned and saw
on the top of the water something
swimming, a red brown head and
shoulders. / was frightened. 1t was
so huge.
i thought of bear of shark
and thoughts of sea monsters flashed
through my mind. The things were
swimming slowly. What l could see
of it looked for all the world like the
head of a magnificent ST. Bernard
dog l used to own.
Then / came TO myself. | realized
that this was the fish of species
not known 10 me and of an incredi-
BILE, unheard of size. He had taken
my fly, had hooked himself on to the
rod which he had dragged overheard
and was swimming slowly because
he was drawing it along the bottom
of the lake.
l chased him. He dived, came up
again with a splashing like that of an
elephant in pond and smashed
down again. Almost l could keep up
with him, so slowly did he swim and
SO much time did he waste in his
frantic efforts to get free.
If had been able to row properly,
facing in direction opposite to the
one in which | was moving, I be-
lieve l could have overtaken him.
But l needed to keep my eyes on
him, and so had to backwater with
the oars, losing power at every
stroke | was thinking slowly. was
still too stunned to think normally.
was puzzled by the fact that such
monster did not break my frail
tackle in a moment. There was no
resistance so long as the 40 rods
OF line continued to unwind or the
rod to move easily through the
water.
AS often as he swung over and
dropped down on the six-foot leader
IL simply yielded beneath him. Five
times he rose, and the fifth time
was quite near him. He seemed to
be anything from four feet to six feet
long. l have at home a muskallonge
which l caught five years ago in the
st. Lawrence river. He weighed 32
pounds and measured AZ inches. This
fellow was much bigger and more
terrifying And l have no other
means of guessing as to his size and
weight
Then with the sixth leap and dive
something gave, and the monster was
seen no more. / rowed slowly back
to camp actually unnerved by the ad-
venture. Literally felt afraid to
be alone in the failing evening light,
alone on piece of water inhabited
by such creatures as the one who
had pursued me and whom | had
pursued.