Well, it didnt happen while hunting, but I was fishing a stretch of White River that runs right behind my Mothers place early one morning...about 3:00 a.m. I was working 2nd shift at a local saw Mill at the time and got in the habit of fishing for Smallmouth Bass in the wee hours of the morning. By the way, this turned out to be a very productive time to fish for Bronzebacks...give it a try sometime.
I was fishing a large root wad that had snagged a bunch of limbs and stuff with live Crawdads but had not had any bites in the hour or so I had been there. Off to my left I heard the sound of water splashing in a small cutback the river had made...about 10 yards away. I picked up my light and shone it over there to see what was splashin around. I figured to see a racoon fishin for Crawdads but instead I seen something I have never seen before or seen since.
Whatever it was was partially submerged in the water, how big it was I could not tell, but the part that stuck out of the water was about 14-16" long and about 6-8" high and the color was snowy white. But, the most unusual thing about it was that it had about 7 or 8 things sticking out of its back that looked like fins almost. There is a salt water fish called a Rooster Fish that has long dorsal fins that look like stiff ribbons sticking out of its back....thats what these things looked like. they were about 6-8" long and pointed towards the rear of whatever this thing was. It crossed in front of me about 12-15 feet away from me and I swear to this day I could not determine what kind of critter this thing was. It didnt look like it had fur, scales, or any other discernable traits other than the long things sticking out of its back.
The next day I told my Folks about it and they just gave me one of those slow nods and said..."Well...whatever you say." :roll: The following day...my Mother came to me with a story that was almost identical to mine, she had seen it also. Same place, same time, headin in the same direction comin from the same place. We never did see it again after that, although we sat down there many nights waiting for it. To this day we have no clue what it was...we refer to it as The White River Gumby.
In all my years of running that river I have seen alot of things but nothing that ever even remotely resembled that critter. And to this day, even after seeing it up close...I still wouldnt care to even venture a guess as to what it may have been.
