By Tim Binnall
The sonar equipment aboard a boat on Lake Champlain recently picked up a rather remarkable object which some believe could be the site's legendary monster Champ. The intriguing image was captured this past Sunday by a chartered vessel captained by Scott Thurber. Sharing the fantastic photo on Facebook, he marveled that "we had the pleasure of seeing this image appear on our Garmin Eco Map UHD this afternoon while fishing lake trout," which he indicated were "on the bottom of the screen as this Champy image cruises above." As can be seen in the image, the sonar return appears to show a creature with a sizeable body, a set of fins, a long neck, and a possible tail.
Sharing more details on the "very bizarre" sonar capture with indefatigable Champ researcher Katy Elizabeth, Thurber mused that "I can't explain what it actually is" and observed that "I know it's not the normal shape of bait balls on the which I see daily." He went on to note that there was "a large school of bait fish approximately 100 yards off my bow" and theorized that perhaps the creature was headed in that direction "for a snack." The peculiar case is not the first time that Champ may have possibly been spotted on sonar as Elizabeth herself has previously captured tantalizing returns during her numerous expeditions on Lake Champlain in search of the mysterious 'monster.' What do you think of Thurber's image? Was it a genuine brush with Champ or something more prosaic? Weigh in with your thoughts at the C2C Facebook page.