Original subtitles

[Forrest] For centuries, fishermen have intrigued us

with tales of mysterious monsters from the deep.

Or prehistoric serpents larger than their vessels.

But with no physical proof,

it's always been easy to write these creatures off as fantasy.

So, how do we explain the continued sightings, year after year?

Or the unique concentration of reports

in the Pacific Northwest?

There's something really snaking through the water there.

I'm fairly convinced it's a case of mistaken identity.

There's something swimming there. Look.

Well, my wife Jess believes there's a possibility

it's an unidentified creature.

We could potentially have a creature

that's going in and out of these waterways.

[Forrest] And to prove it, we're following every lead

together, as a family.

[exclaiming]

No matter where it takes us.

This is crazy.

Until we solve the mystery of...

[laughing excitedly]

...the Lake Monsters of the Pacific Northwest.

I'm Forrest Galante.

As a wildlife biologist, tracking and rediscovering

animals on the verge of extinction...

Oh, my God.

...I've noticed a pattern of mysterious sightings.

And human-wildlife conflicts...

Look, it's an elephant. There's an elephant, right there.

...which often turned deadly.

[clamoring]

Now, my team and I are scouring the globe

to shed light on the myths and misconceptions

surrounding our planet's mostMysterious Creatures.

Throw it, throw it, throw it.

-Nice, what's that? -[chuckles]

Having a lot of fun throwing sticks in the water.

[Forrest] My wife Jessica is a biologist, like myself.

With a master's degree in education,

and a passion for nature's greatest mysteries.

We've had our hands full since the birth of our son, Rhodes.

-Mama! -Let's go see Mommy. Let's go see Mommy.

But now that he's travel-ready,

we're eager to investigate a very particular obsession

we all share.

[Jessica] So, I've put together a map.

This is Oregon, Washington, Idaho,

into British Columbia up there.

This purple line right here,

this represents the Columbia river.

-Okay. -And it all feeds out into the ocean.

Now, obviously, we're talking about a really big geographic area here.

But there's one common thread that I have seen,

kinda going on,

and these are reports of...

...some kind of monster.

Whether it be a sea creature,

a river monster, a lake monster...

[Forrest] Lake monsters.

It sounds like something you would be more likely to see

at a drive-in double feature than in nature.

But mysterious sightings are reported regularly.

Scotland's Loch Ness monster

is easily the most well-known.

Described as a long-necked creature, with numerous humps

people have been spotting Nessie since 1933.

But she's not the only unconfirmed creature

to earn a name.

This side here, this is Colossal Clod.

Over there we've got Wally.

And then on the far side, it's Charlie.

What are these ones up here?

-[Jessica] Well, that one's Marcon, over there. -[Forrest] Marvin?

-Yeah. -Okay.

Right by your foot over there, that's Ogopogo.

And that one?

Oh...

So that's a monster actually been reported right outside of Seattle.

The Willatuk Sea Serpent.

Go get Ogopogo.

Way up there. Go on, go get him.

Oh... Ogopogo's cousin.

The Lake Chelan dragon.

I mean, you're talking about one, two, three, four,

five, six, seven reported sea monsters.

[Jessica] I mean, all of this water feeds out to the ocean.

-Okay. -We could potentially have a creature

that's going in and out of these waterways.

From the ocean, up the river...

But I think we need to start with Lake Chelan.

There have been people on boats that have reported

these scaly beasts and things like that.

So that's where we have to start,

So I think that's a good starting point.

And I know a historian that can help us out

with some of this background information too.

Oh, he's ready. Look at him.

Oh, thanks, Sweet pea.

-[squeals] -[both chuckle] Yeah!

Come on.

[Forrest] The Pacific Northwest is loosely defined

as Oregon, Idaho, British Columbia and Washington.

With five mountain ranges and ten active volcanoes,

this is one of the most geographically active area of the world.

And the fresh mountain water running down those peaks,

flows into some of America's largest and most active rivers,

streams, and glacial lakes.

Many of them have reported sightings of unexplained creatures.

But the highest concentration is around Lake Chelan.

If you're gonna be a creature you need somewhere to hide.

-I feel like Lake Chelan could be it. -Yeah.

I've got my fingers crossed that we might just find something amazing.

[Forrest] Lake Chelan sits in a very isolated part of Washington State.

It's a 50-mile long strip.

And with a maximum depth of nearly 1500 feet,

it's one of the deepest lakes in the world.

Kind of an ideal spot for a lake monster to hide from detection.

I mean, spring's the time of year to be here.

Early summer, late spring. Everything comes out of hiding, you know.

Including all the big fish, all the animals, everything.

[Jessica] Okay, I'm just saying,

-you never know what we could find. -That's true.

I hope we see beavers.

-[chuckles] -I hope I see beavers too. I love beavers.

[baby squeals]

[Forrest] If we're gonna catch this creature on film,

we need to know where to look.

So Jess arranged a meeting with John Fahey.

He's a local historian who studied the lake.

As well as its own legendary monster.

The Lake Chelan dragon.

Let's talk about the elephant in the room.

-Okay. -Or the dragoon in the lake.

Yeah, right. My best guess is there's something here.

-I don't know what it is. -That's how Jessica feels.

-Yeah. Yeah. -That's how I feel, so...

I think, just based on all these people having these sightings,

-and it's been going on for, you know, so long. -Sure, yeah.

I had the chance to work on the lake monster for my book about Lake Chelan.

So, I've interviewed a lot of people,

-done a lot of research on it. -Right.

So, I met a gal, who-- She gave me a first-hand report.

And they were picnicking on the shore,

and somebody looked up and they said, "What is that?"

And they thought, at first, it was a seal.

And then they look behind the seal,

and they saw other humps. And they watched it.

And somebody said, "That's a lake monster."

And then they watched it for 20 minutes.

-They watched it for 20 minutes. -For 20 minutes.

Now, my first thought, "Where was your camera then?"

-[all laughing] -That's the question. Right.

-Yes. -Exactly. Exactly.

Level with me. What do you think this monster could be?

You can imagine something could actually be trapped in this lake

that's been isolated from every other tributary.

Could be extinct everywhere else,

and still only exist here.

So the big question would be, how would a lake monster

-get in a lake carved up in the high cascades. -Right.

Well, this was carved by a glacier,

and at the time it was done the glacier was about 3,500 feet above us.

And it dammed the lake called Lake Missoula.

It's called Glacial Lake Missoula.

And it's about as big as Lake Erie.

-Okay. -And then,

one time or several times,

um, this lake burst.

And we had massive floods.

These were some of the largest floods

in history.

During that time, there would have been

massive waterways all over the inland Northwest,

All interconnected.

And then they all would have splashed together.

-You said it. Yeah. -Yeah.

This lake was once connected to all the other waterways,

including probably the ocean at one point.

Then, when this water receded and when the glaciers receded,

you ended up with the-- Kinda the small pools that are left over.

And it's in these pools where we have these lake monsters.

Where would I get started? Where is the place that I go

to find and film this thing?

I think you're gonna find it at the deepest point in the lake.

It is 1,486 feet deep.

It's about 22 miles that way.

-Okay. -And it's actually 400 feet below sea level.

-[both] Wow. -Yeah, so this is

really carved down into the continent.

And I think people think this monster is maybe shy.

So if you guys are on the hunt, I would say, be stealthy.

And see what's going on up there.

[Forrest] John really has us intrigued.

The unique history of these lakes

provides a possible explanation,

as to how a foreign species could have been introduced

and even survived here.

Alleged sightings generally describe a large, dark, snake-like head

emerging from the lake with humps trailing it.

But that's all we got to go on.

[babbles]

♪ We're going on a boat We're going on a boat ♪

-Boat ride. Boat ride. -Ready?

[Jessica] All right.

Here we go.

Here, come drive.

Come drive the boat. Come on.

[Forrest] My family raised me while running safaris in Africa

-Drive? Drive the boat. -Drive the boat.

Experiencing the animal kingdom up close

is exactly what inspired my passion for wildlife conservation and biology.

Jess and I want Rhodes to have the same opportunities and respect for our world

[Jessica and Forrest] Hi!

Or really, his world.

Buddy, look here. Driver guy.

[indistinct chatter]

So we've come about 20 miles up Lake Chelan now,

and you can see it's no longer tourist town.

It is remote. It is rugged.

It is rough and windy and cold and miserable.

The closer we get to the deepest part of the lake,

the more our afternoon cruise is turning into a choppy stomach churn.

[Rhodes whimpering]

[Jessica] Daddy's driving, love.

[Rhodes] Daddy.

Da!

[Jessica] Oh, my goodness.

[Forrest] The extreme depth makes it feel like we're out in the middle of the ocean.

Not a situation I expected to bring Rhodes into.

And these pontoons were not designed for this kind of a beating

[Jessica speaking]

[Rhodes] Daddy.

We need to make camp. This is getting a little too rough.

This is getting a little too rough.

[Jessica] Yes, this is way too rough.

[Jessica groans]

[Forrest] Look at this spot.

All right. I think we can make land here.

This is the spot. We're gonna pull in here.

Watch the rocks.

[Jessica] Let me know if you need me to go grab the line.

Yeah, go up on the bow.

Take Rhodes. Be careful.

We sink a boat out here,

We're not getting back.

-[Jessica] This looks like a nice, sandy pebbly beach. -Yeah, this will work.

This will work. See, it's a little more protective

All right. This is it, this is camp.

Don't do it.

-I'll grab that. -All right

-[sighs] -[babbling]

Da, Da, Da.

This will serve as our observation point.

Jess, the crew and I will set up multiple surveillance opportunities from here.

So we need to get comfortable.

Hey, not helpful.

[Jessica chuckling]

-[squealing] -[Forrest] No, no, no.

-My goodness. This is slightly slower pace... -Can you get the--

than how I'm usually doing this.

Rhodes, can you put that n the hole?

There you go. Good job, buddy.

Okay. Oops, donks.

Okay, that's gonna go there.

The one thing that John said is that we need to be discreet.

So what I'd like to do is cover camp

-in a concealment cloth. -Okay.

I have got these right here.

Take this.

This will help us blend in without disturbing the natural wildlife...

We're just going to wrap around the tent a little bit.

...and stay stealthy, as John advised.

I've built blinds all over the world and even ghillie suits.

So this cloth is kind of like a ghillie suit for our tent.

[Rhodes] Daddy!

Yes, son.

Hey, is there a monkey in that tent?

No, Mama. [giggles]

And since there's so much natural camouflage around,

we'll use that too.

Ah, there we go.

-Hi, Daddy. -Oh, there he is.

-[Jessica] Oh, there he is! -[Jessica and Forrest chuckle]

[Forrest] Go ahead, all the way in, you monster.

[Jessica] All right.

-[Forrest] Hello, hat man. -[Jessica] You could actually nap in here, bud,

[both babbling]

Hey!

As intriguing as John's stories were,

It's amazing how people

never seem to have a camera when they see the lake monster.

So I'm setting up cameras that will record

any motion on the water.

Whether I'm here to witness it or not.

I'm gonna set one of my cameras up here,

just shooting out towards the lake.

The easiest way to track down almost any animal is to figure out where it feeds.

But finding anything in a deep, dark lake can be challenging.

So instead, I looked to the geography,

like right here where the stream meets the lake.

And so, in a confluence area like this,

what happens is little fish get washed out from the stream.

Big fish hang out here, ready to eat them.

And hopefully the biggest fish of all,

the potential monster, is hanging out here.

Occasionally, coming up for air.

So it's a long shot, but I'm gonna place some game cameras right here.

Let's see what happens.

Let's go put some more up. [sighs]

Okay, well, it's somewhat unusual.

I'm gonna place another camera here pointing up the creek.

And although the monster that we're looking for

is said to live in Lake Chelan,

maybe it's an animal that's

that's moving in and out of connected waterways.

So I'm just gonna put a camera up here as well and see if we get

anything coming down the creek.

Ooh, big fish jump right there.

Since we're looking for a creature we know nothing about,

I can't be sure whether it's active during the day or the night.

So while our camera man Mitch is watching over Rhodes,

Jess and I are heading out for some nocturnal surveillance.

We've switched to night vision cameras

to capture what the human eye cannot.

-Whoa, Look at the size of the dandelion. It's huge! -I saw that.

-[Forrest] Make a wish. -All right.

What you wish for?

-A lake monster -[Forrest chuckles]

Right here. Here's the spot, right here.

I'll take this.

[Jessica] Okay.

[Forrest] And I'm gonna fly the thermal from here,

-and to see if we can see anything. -Okay.

Thermal cameras create an image

using infrared radiation rather than visible light.

Oh, that's cool.

The hotter something is, the brighter it appears.

So any creatures surfacing on this frigid mountain lake should be easy to spot.

Usually I have Mitch doing it.

But he is as fast asleep as Rhodes is right now.

-So... -Oh, I just--

Did I actually hear something?

-[Forrest] There was any splash? -[Jessica] Yeah.

[Forrest] All right, well, let's get the drone up. Maybe we'll see what it is

-[Forrest Oh, look at that. Big-horned sheep. -Whoa.

[Jessica chuckles] Cool.

I'm going to change it.

There you go. Now you can really see the hot spots.

Oh, look, there's camp.

-See, there are the boats -Yeah, yeah.

Look at how that cold, cold water comes out into the lakes.

See how much colder it is than the lake--

[Jessica] Yeah, that's where the creek's coming out.

[Forrest] That's actually amazing.

Oh, look, someone's up at camp.

-[Jessica] Who do you think it is, up at camp? -It's Mitch.

He heard the drone. He's having a mild panic attack right now.

Without any doubt.

Look, there's something. Look.

-Can you go down a bit? -I'm trying. Disappeared. Wait, wait, wait.

Yeah, look, look, look. There's something swimming there.

There's something swimming there. Look.

It just went out by the shore.

[Jessica] Oh, yeah, look at it go.

It's right there. It's right by

-where we put those trail cameras. -Yeah.

I lost it. Mitch wouldn't have lost it.

Don't tell him I said that.

I just saw a round thing bobbing there,

and then it splashed and ducked under.

[Jessica] Hm.

Well, let's head back to camp before Rhodes wakes up,

and call it a night.

Whatever we saw should have been captured

by the trail cameras I set out earlier,

so there's still a chance we can identify it.

But first, we're hungry.

And fortunately, in an area this full of life,

providing for ourselves is as easy as taking a hike.

Oh, look what I see.

This is Sweet Sicily.

Now, any time you go foraging, you want to know

with 100 percent certainty that you are eating something

that is safe.

Sweet Sicily is in the carrot family,

which means that there are some potentially poisonous relatives.

I can identify this one based on leaf shape

and it actually has a couple little micro hairs along the stem.

And when you taste it...

Wanna taste?

It should have a sweet, fennel like flavor to it

These gorgeous flowers are wild roses.

Now, along with being beautiful

and smelling absolutely wonderful, like perfume,

they're delicious. You can eat them straight off of the bush

Yeah, there you go

Yum, they're like candy, huh?

Yummy.

We're not gonna have any to bring back to Dad

at the rate that you're eating them.

Going on a mushroom hunt.

We're going to find a big one.

Oh, I almost stepped on it.

[chuckles] This is a morel.

-Morels are delicious. Whoa! Watch your feet. -[squeals]

Mushrooms are so fascinating because they grow in a network.

So almost think of it like a tree.

And the branches are underneath the ground.

And what pops up is the fruit.

So when we pick this morel, we're actually helping

because it's clearing the forest for more mushrooms to grow.

Man, look at that.

[Forrest] While Jess and Rhodes gather edibles in the forest,

I'm in charge of protein, which means it's time to go fishing.

There's lake trout in here, there's rainbow trout, cutthroat trout, burbot.

There's all kinds of fish in the Pacific Northwest.

And a couple of them, fantastic eating.

In order to catch one of those,

you use something nice and shiny.

Like a little rooster tail like this

All right, let's go fishing.

There it is.

Fish on. Ooh, he's a fighter.

Look at this beautiful, big, fat cut throat trout,

and it's gonna be perfect to go with whatever

Jess gets out there today, foraging.

So see if we can get a couple more as well.

Oh.

Oh, yeah.

That's a fighter right there.

Another cuttie.

Dude, it is crazy on here.

And they're big trout, like for a cut throat

that's huge, and just beautiful.

The amount of fish here. The abundance is unbelievable.

I mean, in three-- four casts, I've caught three fish.

Two absolutely stunning brook trout and now one small lake trout.

This is going to be delicious.

Look at that. It's a hell of a stringer in five minutes of fishing.

[laughs]

[gasps]

-What do you see? -[Forrest] Buddy!

Did you guys find all kinds of--

Dandelion greens and sweet Sicily, some pine tips

and we got some morels as well.

-A whole bag, I love it. -I know, it's a haul of morels.

[Rhodes] Dad--

-[Forrest] Yeah, you want olive oil? -[Jessica] Yes, please.

So we have these beautiful wild cut throat trout that we caught in the lake

and Jessica went out and got an entire smorgasbord.

of veggies, spices, mushrooms, all kinds of incredible thing.

And here we are with another installment

of Cooking in the Forest with Forrest, family edition.

[laughs]

We're just going to roast these trout over hot coals

using the aromatics Jess and Rhodes collected.

It's like literally tasting your environment.

Ooh, wild spinach. I'll have some of that.

[Jessica] I'm gonna put some dandelion greens on mine.

Beautiful. Yours looks a lot nicer than mine.

This is why I don't have a cooking show.

Who's gonna be better, Rhodes?

Daddy or Mommy?

-Mama. -Mama.

Who knew that searching for a lake monster could be so delicious.

-You guys are gonna get dinner too, out of this. -It'll be good.

-You keep going and I'm gonna get these on the grill. -Okay.

[Mitch speaking]

But when it's just us, we get grub, worms and bug critters.

-[Johnny] Scorpions. -[Mitch] Scorpions.

[Johnny] And lard.

[Jessica] Oh, wonderful.

That's one of the reasons I love trout.

Just pull off these beautiful fillets like that.

-I have a little surprise for you. -You do?

When we first got here, I went ahead

and collected a few things and I started fermenting.

I thought that's something Rhodes made.

No, this is not a Rhodes Potion.

It's got some wild rose, some elderflower some fresh pine sprigs.

Here you go.

Oh, you bottled some?

-Yeah. Ready? -Oh, nice.

Oh, my God, That's delicious.

Come and taste this. You think I'm joking?

Come and taste this.

Wow.

-Let me taste it. -Oh, hell no.

Give me the trout. Let's go, Let's eat.

I appreciate all the camera work, but it's-- it's time to eat.

Come get some food.

I'm so bummed Rhodes is missing this.

[Forrest] That energy was just what we needed to get back to the search.

I grabbed the media from all the cameras I placed earlier,

so let's see if we caught a glimpse of the Lake Chelan dragon.

-That was a little bat flying by, that's what triggered it. -What's that? Yeah.

-Think it was triggered by the reeds moving? -That's nothing

The cattails over there?

Any movement sets off the record function.

So there's plenty of footage to look through,

-[Jessica] Hey, a duck! -[both laugh]

Some mallards. Not looking promising. Let's try another one.

[Jessica] No monsters here so far.

-[Forrest] There's something. -[Jessica] Oh, yeah.

There's something really snaking through the water there.

That's something big.

That's something big

Yeah.

Huh. Maybe it's a little fish coming up to feed?

It's not that. Way too big to be a fish.

The head of something.

-Still going. -Oh, there it is!

-[Forrest] It's a beaver. Yeah. -[Jessica] It's a beaver.

-Beavers are so cute. -So cute.

[Forrest] That's definitely what we saw in the thermal.

-[Jessica] Yeah. -What time was this clip taken?

[Johnny] 1:34 am.

[Forrest] Yeah, that's definitely what we saw on the thermal last night.

Think about it. Especially like this kinda light,

We saw like a couple of beavers

and they were going in and out of the dam.

You had 'em lined up single file.

You could mistake that for a serpent or some kind of a monster,

especially if you are, like, into this

-and you wanted to see one. -Hundred percent.

-Yep. -[Forrest] I don't think trail cams are going to do it.

We're looking for an aquatic animal.

We're-- We're getting beavers and ducks.

I do have with me that Garmin lake floor mapping tool,

-the one with 3-D printing. -Oh, yeah.

That's so cool. So.

-Let's do it. -All right.

Thanks.

Look at this water, it is so crystal clear.

But what's crazy is, it just drops off.

Where we might be in 20 or 30 feet here,

but the back of the boat, we're in 200.

Just such a sheer vertical space,

and because of that, the majority of this lake

is completely unmapped and unexplored.

It's just too deep for people to check it out, so...

Fortunately, we have cutting edge technology.

Okay.

Okay, so you go run that off the bow.

-I'm gonna put this here. -Huh. Whenever you're ready.

Okay, go ahead. Wanna make sure it's working

Oh, see, this is sick. Look at this.

Look at it. it's drawing it as we go.

Wow, look at that

You see what it's doing

is the sonar is literally painting a picture

of what the lake looks like underneath us.

Right now we're in 25 feet of water.

Not that interesting. You can see the bottom,

but what we're about to do is head to the drop off.

I just want to scan--

Oh, look at that. There's a big reef.

See, this is incredible.

I mean, it's likely that no one in history

has ever seen this structure before.

A three dimensional composition

of what this piece of the lake floor actually looks like.

Here, come and look at it.

-Yeah. -Switch it up. Go look at it.

You can drive for a bit

Oh, yeah.

You see, it's like a cliff going down.

[Forrest] Technology like this is so incredible.

This is something that's made for fishermen to find fish,

but having the ability to repurpose this,

to use it to map a lake floor, to understand how currents are formed,

where fish hide, where creatures go at night that live under water...

I mean, it can just give us so much data

that furthers our understanding of wildlife.

So look, we're coming up on like this dark abyss over here.

You see that? Oh, yeah.

You could see a log. Like, perfectly.

Really?

-Yeah, or a rock or something. -Oh, I can't see anything at all.

[Forrest] Here we go. Here's some cool structure.

There's something there.

[Jessica] Are you seeing something?

[Forrest] Hand that off to Johnny. Come and see.

-Oh, yeah, look at that. -See it?

-[Jessica] What is that? -I don't know.

It's a big structure, though.

You see how it's a little bit hollow underneath?

-Yeah. -So it could be like a cave.

It could be a cavern.

It could be like a big overhang.

-[Jessica] Mm-hm. It's like a dome. -Exactly It's like a dome.

-That's a really cool -Perfect place

for something big to hide under there.

You think it's hollow in the middle?

It's definitely hollow, see all of this negative space in here?

Let's get down there.

-I mean, it's 130 feet deep. -Let's check it out.

-Yeah it's deep. -That's gonna be cold.

It's gonna be cold.

[Forrest] Diving in a lake is very different from ocean diving

and requires special care.

Without the saltwater,

you sink like a stone,

so you have to always be aware of where the surface is.

On top of that, this mountain water is cold,

about 43 degrees right now.

So I'm glad we brought wetsuits

Here's something I don't see often in the ocean,

but wrecks like this can form a shelter

and become a home for millions of organisms.

Phew! You okay? It was called down there.

-[exclaiming] -Let me see the one that you found.

All the same. Oh, yours is huge, look at that.

Aren't those amazing?

Those literally look like the scaled armor of a dragon.

Look at that. Let's get in before you freeze to death.

Okay.

It's just the extremities.

I think I know exactly what this is.

Let me see that. The one that you found.

Take this one, bud.

You like Daddy's funny glasses?

[Forrest] I carry jewelers' glasses

to examine artifacts in the field. Don't you?

If I'm not mistaken, these belong to, literally, a living dinosaur.

So you think you know what our monster is?

I'm absolutely certain. I know what these belong to.

And if we can catch one and I can match it up to confirm it,

I believe we'll actually know what, at one point in time,

was the living lake monster trapped inside this lake.

I don't want to tell Jess my theory until I can prove it,

But these air old scales belonging to a creature that's long dead.

I don't know if any others exist in Lake Chelan.

But I do have a pretty good idea where I can catch one.

So if it's not in the lake, then where do we need to go?

Guys, we're gonna pack up camp.

We're gonna get out of here. We got to drive ahead of us.

Were leaving Lake Chelan, traveling down the Columbia River

past several major dams to one of the very last ones.

[reading]

Its pale waters are a rumored hotspot

for a species with scales just like our specimen

My theory is this species once traveled up river,

as far as Lake Chelan,

before dams started going up in the 1930s.

And I believe one or more may have survived to this day.

Now, to prove my theory, I need to catch one

and compare it to the scales we found.

This creature could be what people are calling the Lake Chelan Dragon.

So, we have some beautiful big, fresh shad here,

that came from actually getting tumbled around

in the loch system as they migrate up.

What we're gonna do, cut the tail off.

-[Rhodes whines] -[both chuckle] Oh...

Can you believe it?

What do you think? Taste?

No. Yuck, Dad.

-[babbles] -That's right. We're going to throw it in the water.

[Forrest] Luckily, I came prepared for an enormous animal.

These rods and reels are set for tuna fishing,

which means an extra powerful trolling riel

and 130 lb. test fishing line.

But they weren't designed for pelicans.

We're up here, pelican.

Not today, sir.

I'm baiting multiple rods to increase our chances.

He's not getting that.

That just shows you how accustomed to the dam

the other wildlife around here is.

The pelicans, they're looking for fish like the shad

that floated up.

Everything here is affected by restricted waterways.

The creature I'm looking for

is common in these waters.

But there's no natural way

it could have slipped around over a dozen dams to reach Lake Chelan.

We're fishing with huge baits, so we're not going to be

catching anything small, so it might take an hour.

It might take ten hours.

-It's a waiting game. -Settle in.

It gets a hit, make sure you set the hook hard

Coming. It's coming.

There we go!

-Hold on. -Yeah.

Oh, yeah, there we go.

Ooh. We have him/

This might be a big animal.

[Jessica] I can see something!

Where, Jess?

Now it's more like this way.

Did you get a shot of it? I saw it with my eyes, just look like a--

-like a weird black head or something. -Like a little black bubble--

Did nobody get a shot of it?

-You didn't get shot of it? -No, I was filming the little guy.

I'm going to put the foil in and run up to where it was.

[Jessica] Hm, hair in your mouth.

And boogers in your nose.

Let's go

[Jessica] Daddy can't try and stand up.

-[Rhodes] Dada! -[Jessica] Say yay, Daddy!

[Forrest] Get me all the way down.

Daddy gone, bud?

And old piece of plumbing or like irrigation pipe or something.

[grunts]

All right, you should get in. You look freezing.

I am freezing.

Just a bit of human-- human trash.

It's coming. There we go.

[Forrest] Hold on, yeah.

Guys, this might be a big animal

Thanks, sweetie.

Here we go. Holy smokes, this is no joke.

Oh, he might come up for a jump here. he's starting to move.

Here goes here he goes. He's gonna do it.

-Watch, watch, watch! -[all exclaiming]

That is a lake monster, baby.

All right, I'm getting some line now, guys.

It's getting tired, at least for right now.

-[grunting] -Oh, he's running. He's running.

[overlapping chatter]

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

Oh, my God.

[Jessica] That was a flash of green.

-Holy-- -Whoa! Look at that.

-A white sturgeon. -Oh, my God. Look at that thing.

-What we need to do is get the boat to the shore. -Okay.

And see if we can confirm whether or not this is the lake monster.

Greg, Whenever you're ready, let's do it.

[Jessica] Gotcha. I'll go get our samples.

[Forrest] He's exhausted from our lengthy battle.

-Slow, Greg, slow. -And I'm keeping him

submerged and breathing,

as we move to shallow water,

where we can take a good look at him.

-[Jessica] Okay, I can-- -[Mitch] Okay, got him?

All right, take the hook out.

Hook is out. Hook is for you.

-Do you have the sample? Roll it onto my lap. -Yes.

Okay? Hold him here.

We're gonna take out the big sample.

-[grunts] He's gonna go. -Here we go.

Holy crap! There you go. Hold him.

-Hold him. -[screams]

Hold him.

This is the body protrusion that we found, Right?

-Yeah. -See how it fits there.

-Yeah. -Feel how, on either side,

it's got this bony point.

Those are those bony plates right there. 100 percent.

That is a scoop from a white sturgeon.

White sturgeon like this.

can grow as long as 20 feet,

and one was recorded

weighing nearly 1,800 pounds.

Their rarity and enormous size could certainly startle any lake goers.

Plus the bony protrusion from its spine

could give it a serpentine look as they break the surface.

You know, these things living upwards of 100 years,

it's not at all impossible

to imagine, that when these dams were built,

these animals were stuck in all kinds of lakes,

where they're not supposed to be.

Eleven dams were constructed on this river alone,

between 1938 and 1972.

The scales we found tell us

white sturgeon were trapped as far upriver as Lake Chelan.

If you ask me, this is a very obvious answer

to an age-old question

of one incredible, crypted mistaken identity.

Let's let go of this amazing lake monster.

Let's give him a gentle-- a gentle glide.

And off he goes.

There he goes...

[both laughing]

I'd officially say this is a mystery solved!

[Forrest] It's interesting how the deep, dark lake waters can hide so much from us.

Not just the white sturgeon,

but the ongoing conflict between human-built dams

and the wildlife that depends on these waterways.

These waters have changed.

And as they've changed, animals have changed their behavior.

Giant fish, white sturgeon have become stuck.

They've changed their behavior.

Some are jumping and leaping out of the water.

Some are feeding on the surface.

Some are growing to gigantic sizes.

And as this weird behavior comes up,

and these 14-15 foot long fish get sighted,

it looks like a monster.

I believe that these monsters, these legends of the Pacific Northwest

are these giant prehistoric fish

changing the way that they act.

People seeing them and not knowing

what on earth could be such a massive creature.

Attributing lore and legend

to a fish as old as the culture itself.