Speaker 1: I've been deliberating about sending my story for quite a while,
Speaker 1: and I finally got up the nerve to go ahead
Speaker 1: and send it. I guess my story really starts when
Speaker 1: I was a little boy. My dad took my brother
Speaker 1: and I on multiple fishing trips and camping trips. We
Speaker 1: were never hunters because my mom didn't feel comfortable with
Speaker 1: the guns and my dad always was sensitive to her request,
Speaker 1: but we were always outside and enjoyed the outdoors. When
Speaker 1: we were kids, he would take us out to the
Speaker 1: Mississippi River Valley area, which is close to Bellevue, Iowa.
Speaker 1: I think it was Pool Number eleven. We would spend
Speaker 1: weekends there in our pop up camper across the river.
Speaker 1: There was an army depot and trespassing was forbidden, but
Speaker 1: when the water was high, we could get a rented
Speaker 1: boat in there and fish that area. As long as
Speaker 1: we were not standing on ground, we were legal. We
Speaker 1: would always hear strange noises, things that we couldn't explain,
Speaker 1: and big splashes that my dad would say were beavers.
Speaker 1: As I got older, I started camping and going fishing
Speaker 1: out there on my own, and of course, you get
Speaker 1: smarter and used to the wildlife when you're not a
Speaker 1: little kid and you realize that beavers don't make that
Speaker 1: loud of a splash. While camping there as a kid
Speaker 1: back in the mid seventies, we would have things thrown
Speaker 1: into camp, and we also heard strange noises coming from
Speaker 1: the woods that surrounded us. I remember a few nights
Speaker 1: when we were awakened to buy those noises. We never
Speaker 1: knew what they were. In later years, I became more
Speaker 1: interested in bass fishing. I competed in several tournaments. This
Speaker 1: is where my story begins, as far as my encounter goes.
Speaker 1: I was fishing a bass tournament on the Mississippi River
Speaker 1: around the Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois area. It was late spring
Speaker 1: and we were fishing a qualifying tournament. I was considered
Speaker 1: a boater and I had drawn a partner that was
Speaker 1: a non boater, and we were heading out on the
Speaker 1: second day of a three day tournament. I had the
Speaker 1: basic equipment in a nineteen foot bass boat with one
Speaker 1: hundred and seventy five horse Johnson on the back, and
Speaker 1: I had all the gear. This was in the early
Speaker 1: two thousands and GPS was not standard equipment at that time.
Speaker 1: We decided to run down the river to find cleaner water.
Speaker 1: We were after large mouth because they're bigger fish and
Speaker 1: they weigh more, and the small mouth bite was nonexistent
Speaker 1: at this time. The Mississippi River is a vast system
Speaker 1: and the backwaters and tributaries that run along the river
Speaker 1: are immense. We had decided to make a run south
Speaker 1: on the river and lock down to another pool. We
Speaker 1: finally got to the area that we decided to fish.
Speaker 1: We had to navigate very carefully. Maps were unreliable due
Speaker 1: to the water level, and again we didn't have GPS.
Speaker 1: To get to the area we wanted to fish, we
Speaker 1: had to go underneath a railroad trestle or bridge if
Speaker 1: you will. But because the river was up at the time,
Speaker 1: we had to actually take the boat, plug out and
Speaker 1: fill the boat with water so that our bass boat
Speaker 1: would sit low enough to fit under this bridge. Once
Speaker 1: we were past the bridge, we would build the water out.
Speaker 1: I know that sounds crazy, but when you're after fish
Speaker 1: and you're that driven, sometimes you do stupid things. In hindsight,
Speaker 1: maybe it wasn't the brightest thing to do, but I
Speaker 1: had actually learned the trick watching bass Master TV. After
Speaker 1: we made our way around through the back area, we
Speaker 1: found a great spot with clear water that we wanted
Speaker 1: to fish. My partner had fished it before and he
Speaker 1: said it was for sure a good spot and that
Speaker 1: we should catch a limit. The lily pads were just
Speaker 1: coming up and the vegetation was reaching the surface. It
Speaker 1: was a little bit late in the spring, so there
Speaker 1: was still some spawning going on, but mostly post spawned,
Speaker 1: and the bass started hitting top water through the pads.
Speaker 1: The bank was mainly rock and sand, and behind that
Speaker 1: was a dense forest. We were setting in a nice
Speaker 1: little stretch all to ourselves, and we had a lot
Speaker 1: of water to fish. It was going to take us
Speaker 1: hours to cover this area. We were stoked and we
Speaker 1: started fishing, trolling at a steady pace with top water baits.
Speaker 1: Fifteen minutes later, my partner put a seventeen inch fish
Speaker 1: in the boat, and by eight thirty am we both
Speaker 1: had our limits. After that we started culing fish. It
Speaker 1: was a perfect day. At around nine thirty I was
Speaker 1: pulling us up to a bank that we hadn't fished
Speaker 1: and we heard some clapp acking, like rocks being clapped together.
Speaker 1: We assumed it was someone working on a project out
Speaker 1: of our view. But as we came around a slight
Speaker 1: ben we saw a dark figure standing on the bank.
Speaker 1: We thought it was a bear. It was hard to
Speaker 1: make out. It really didn't look like a bear, but
Speaker 1: nothing else made sense, even though they are rare in
Speaker 1: this area. It was frolicking on the bank. It was weird.
Speaker 1: It looked like it was gathering mussels or crawfish and
Speaker 1: having a great time at it. We just sat in
Speaker 1: the boat and watched it. As we approached this animal,
Speaker 1: we really couldn't make out what it was still because
Speaker 1: we couldn't see its head. Soon we were close enough
Speaker 1: that it hurt us and it stood up. This thing
Speaker 1: was huge, standing there with water dripping from its black hair.
Speaker 1: I couldn't believe how big this thing was. We now
Speaker 1: knew it was not a bear. My partner and I
Speaker 1: looked at each other and basically, without even saying a word,
Speaker 1: we understood the look of what in the hell is
Speaker 1: this thing. I was on the front deck, high above
Speaker 1: the water, working the trolling motor, and we stopped fishing.
Speaker 1: Of course, Bigfoot never entered my mind at this point.
Speaker 1: I had only heard of Bigfoot from pieces on TV.
Speaker 1: And then this creature started wading into the water towards us.
Speaker 1: Apparently it had some rocks in its hands, and it
Speaker 1: threw at us two times. One of those rocks landed
Speaker 1: in the boat. It was now swimming towards us. It
Speaker 1: was at least one hundred feet away, and we were
Speaker 1: in five feet of water where this thing was. The
Speaker 1: water had to have been about the same depth, so
Speaker 1: I don't know why it started swimming. It could have
Speaker 1: walked all the way to us and never had water
Speaker 1: to its waste, but it was swimming. The noises it
Speaker 1: made while swimming were so strange. It was a huffing
Speaker 1: sound that I had never heard anything like before. It
Speaker 1: sounded very deep and angry. It was time to go
Speaker 1: because he was closing the distance on us fast. We
Speaker 1: both dropped down into the seats and I fired the
Speaker 1: outboard up. Thank god, it cranked on the first turn,
Speaker 1: and I dropped it into gear. The sound of the
Speaker 1: outboard apparently persuaded the creature to stop its advance, because
Speaker 1: it turned and made its way back to the bank.
Speaker 1: I wanted to slow down and watch this thing some more,
Speaker 1: but I figured we better get moving, so we motored
Speaker 1: out of the area. I got a bit concern when
Speaker 1: we reached the railroad trestle, but we got back under
Speaker 1: it the same way that we got in, and then
Speaker 1: we kept moving. We still had a lot of daylight left,
Speaker 1: and we should have wanted to keep fishing, but this
Speaker 1: ordeal kept our minds occupied so that we couldn't concentrate
Speaker 1: on what we were doing. We stopped in ate lunch
Speaker 1: and we talked about the whole thing for an hour
Speaker 1: before head back to the ramp. We both had our limits,
Speaker 1: and we qualified for the next tournament. I was real
Speaker 1: happy about that. For sure. I never ran into that
Speaker 1: guy again in any of the tournaments I fished afterwards,
Speaker 1: so we never kept in touch, and of course I
Speaker 1: haven't talked to him since. I kept the whole thing
Speaker 1: quiet for years, only to tell a couple of close
Speaker 1: friends later on. I figured whoever I relayed this story
Speaker 1: to would think I was nuts, and I don't know
Speaker 1: if the partner that day ever told anyone or if
Speaker 1: he even remembers it. I still fish every chance I get,
Speaker 1: but I don't fish tournaments much. I'm in my fifties now,
Speaker 1: and I will never forget that fishing trip as long
Speaker 1: as I live. After that experience, I looked back at
Speaker 1: my youth on the same river, and I wonder if
Speaker 1: those things that we used to hear when we were
Speaker 1: kids were these same creatures. I used to fish a
Speaker 1: lot in southeastern part of Oklahoma and experienced other strange
Speaker 1: things while fishing, but I never had a sighting or
Speaker 1: can confirm anything but strange things or sounds. Bass fishing
Speaker 1: is a serious sport, and I'm just curious if your
Speaker 1: viewers out there have had similar events. I'm quite sure
Speaker 1: that I'm not the only one that has experienced something
Speaker 1: similar while fishing. I would be really curious to see
Speaker 1: if anyone maybe would respond and tell their story too,
Speaker 1: because I just find it hard to believe that I'm
Speaker 1: the only one that this has happened to while fishing
Speaker 1: the places we fish, especially in the southern reservoirs as
Speaker 1: well as the Mississippi River where there is so much
Speaker 1: shoreline in deep woods. I think these creatures use these
Speaker 1: rivers in tributaries as pathways or roads in a way
Speaker 1: to migrate. I don't really know. I'm no expert, but
Speaker 1: it just makes sense to me. Now that my family
Speaker 1: it has passed away, I can finally tell our story.
Speaker 1: In nineteen hundred, my family came from Russia and Germany
Speaker 1: to homestead up near the Canadian border. There, my great
Speaker 1: grandfather cleared trees and started our farm. Back then, there
Speaker 1: were no chainsaws to cut the trees, nor any heavy
Speaker 1: equipment to move them. Once they were down. Fields were
Speaker 1: plowed by the collaboration of man and animal, and then
Speaker 1: planted and harvested by hand. It meant long hours of
Speaker 1: hard work, but somehow my great grandparents pulled that farm
Speaker 1: out of the sweat of their brow. In nineteen ten,
Speaker 1: my great grandmother was staying in town caring for a
Speaker 1: sick uncle. My great grandfather was working on a large
Speaker 1: wagon when it started to roll. He tried to stop it,
Speaker 1: but it was too big. He fell under it and
Speaker 1: it rolled over his legs, pinning him to the ground.
Speaker 1: He screamed with all his might, but Grandma was in
Speaker 1: town and nobody else was around to hear him. The
Speaker 1: sun began to slowly sink beyond the grassy fields, and
Speaker 1: he heard a noise behind him in the trees. He
Speaker 1: was in severe pain and unable to move, and he
Speaker 1: was becoming sleepy. He thought the overwhelming need to close
Speaker 1: his eyes, but he soon lost the fight, and he
Speaker 1: drifted into unconsciousness. The next morning, he was awakened by
Speaker 1: a hand behind his head, and drops of water were
Speaker 1: hitting his dry, parched lips. He put his hand on
Speaker 1: the unknown person's hands for more water. Then he drifted
Speaker 1: between sleep and awareness, and he opened one eye to
Speaker 1: see someone dark looking down at him. He couldn't figure
Speaker 1: out who it was, and his eyes were blurry from sleep,
Speaker 1: and he was severely dehydrated from lack of water, but
Speaker 1: he knew there were no dark folks living anywhere near him.
Speaker 1: A minute later, his vision began to focus and he
Speaker 1: realized he was looking at something he had never seen before.
Speaker 1: He tried to back away, but his legs weren't working,
Speaker 1: and he was overwhelmed by fear, and he passed out.
Speaker 1: He didn't wake up again until the next morning. He
Speaker 1: was laying there contemplating what he should do when he
Speaker 1: realized his legs were free of the clutching wagon wheel.
Speaker 1: There's no way I lifted that wagon off myself, he
Speaker 1: said to himself aloud. But how did I get free?
Speaker 1: Even now I can't move? He saw something dark peek
Speaker 1: its head around a tree, and fear gripped him like
Speaker 1: a vice. He tried to swallow, but his throat was
Speaker 1: as dry as the sands in the desert. He was
Speaker 1: trembling with dread as he thought, what kind of beast
Speaker 1: is this? My grandfather began to pray for the Lord
Speaker 1: to protect him as the creature began to move toward
Speaker 1: him in small, uncertain steps. It moved slowly forward until
Speaker 1: it was standing right over my grandfather. Then it held
Speaker 1: out its hand and in it was a big chunk
Speaker 1: of moss. The feeling of strangling fear vanished as my
Speaker 1: grandfather realized this was the dark man he had seen before.
Speaker 1: The beast knelt down and squeezed the moss while holding
Speaker 1: my grandfather's head so he could drink the water dripping.
Speaker 1: Then the beast disappeared into the trees, but it soon
Speaker 1: returned with a skinned out squirrel. It tore off bits
Speaker 1: of meat and fed it to my grandfather. After an hour,
Speaker 1: the beast picked up my grandfather and headed toward the farmhouse,
Speaker 1: and it laid him on the front porch with the
Speaker 1: moisture soaked moss next to him. A couple hours after that,
Speaker 1: the sound of a trotting horse and wagon came down
Speaker 1: the road and it was my great grandmother and her nephew, Eugene.
Speaker 1: They pulled up in Grandma rando Grandpa asking what had happened,
Speaker 1: and he told her the whole story and of the
Speaker 1: new friend they had made. This would be the first
Speaker 1: of many interactions my family had with a family of
Speaker 1: Si squats living nearby, all the way up until the
Speaker 1: nineteen eighties. I am handicapped now, so I'm unable to type. Well,
Speaker 1: it may take some time to tell them all. At
Speaker 1: least now I can finally tell our story. And that's
Speaker 1: the end. Can y'all see why I like that story? Oh? Man,
Speaker 1: it was great. I mean, I love the old stories
Speaker 1: that come from he said this happened in the early
Speaker 1: nineteen hundreds. I thought it was fantastic. And now I'm
Speaker 1: going to talk about I'm going to do my I
Speaker 1: have to do this about three or four times a
Speaker 1: year and explain to people because we get a lot
Speaker 1: of new people listening and questions come. Most of the time,
Speaker 1: questions are just pretty bland and vanilla. You know, hey,
Speaker 1: are these true? How do you know if they're true?
Speaker 1: Blah blah blah. Some of them are pretty nasty. I
Speaker 1: got into it with some guy in the comments section.
Speaker 1: I shouldn't do that, but they really pissed me off sometimes,
Speaker 1: and I like to when they insult me, I like
Speaker 1: to insult them back. This guy was just real adamant
Speaker 1: about how we should be more diligent about making sure
Speaker 1: that these stories are true. He's probably one of these
Speaker 1: Bigfoot purists who you know, has this omniscient ability to
Speaker 1: be able to tell what stories are true and which
Speaker 1: ones aren't. I can't tell that. I don't know which
Speaker 1: ones are true and which ones aren't. And so here's
Speaker 1: my here's my quarterly announcement to the audience. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I've got three hundred. I'm pushing four hundred videos up
Speaker 1: right now. Out of four hundred, three hundred and ninety
Speaker 1: of them or story videos. I have no idea if
Speaker 1: any of these stories are true. There's no way for
Speaker 1: me to check them, and there's no way to vet them.
Speaker 1: And when people challenge me on that, I put it
Speaker 1: back to them. If you can show me, if you
Speaker 1: can show me one Bigfoot story that you can prove
Speaker 1: without a doubt that's true, then we'll talk. We'll talk,
Speaker 1: and you give maybe you can rub some of that
Speaker 1: magic off on me so that I can figure out
Speaker 1: how these are true. But I can't do it. And
Speaker 1: so when people send me stories, I read them, you
Speaker 1: have to decide if they're true. I don't consider it
Speaker 1: my job to figure out which one of these are
Speaker 1: true and which ones aren't. Because like this story we
Speaker 1: just read, it is an outlandishly crazy story. But could
Speaker 1: it have happened. Absolutely, it could have happened. If you
Speaker 1: believe Bigfoot exists, then you have to believe that the
Speaker 1: at least believe that this story could have happened. And
Speaker 1: if it did happen or didn't happen, it does not
Speaker 1: matter to me. What matters to me is was it
Speaker 1: a good story? It was a fantastic story. And on
Speaker 1: the off chance that this is true, and I'm not
Speaker 1: saying it isn't I'm not saying it is. On the
Speaker 1: off chance that this story is true, wouldn't it be
Speaker 1: a waste if we If I just took this story
Speaker 1: and put it in my trash folder, it would have
Speaker 1: been a waste and a shame to leave the story
Speaker 1: out of this podcast. So there you have it. There's
Speaker 1: my I have to I can't. I have to do this.
Speaker 1: Some people ask me if the Steve Lilly stories are true.
Speaker 1: If I do a fictional story, I'm going to tell
Speaker 1: you it's fiction. And if I don't tell you it's fiction,
Speaker 1: I'm kind of assuming that you know it's fiction by
Speaker 1: the way it's written, by stating who the author is
Speaker 1: and telling you that he has two dozen books out
Speaker 1: right now. I love to read stuff by other authors.
Speaker 1: It's fun, it's ready to go. It helps them sell books,
Speaker 1: it gives me material to include the podcast. And so
Speaker 1: sometimes when people ask me are this Steve Lily stories true,
Speaker 1: I'll come back with, really, are you really asking me
Speaker 1: that question? And I think it insults some when I
Speaker 1: do that, and that's not what I don't mean that
Speaker 1: that way. I'm like flabbergasted that anybody would think one
Speaker 1: of those Steve Lily stories is true. But to answer
Speaker 1: your question, they're not true. They're fiction. They're made up
Speaker 1: and my twisted imagination, and they're fun to write. Their
Speaker 1: fun stories. They're fun stories. And look, guys, we can
Speaker 1: have fun with this bigfoot topic every once in a while.
Speaker 1: It doesn't have to be like the Bigfoot purists make it.
Speaker 1: It can be fun. People can have fun with this
Speaker 1: and if they don't like it, they don't have to listen.
Speaker 1: I think I'm getting a little bit off topic, but I
Speaker 1: just wanted to be clear. I don't do any of
Speaker 1: these stories trying to pass off something that I know
Speaker 1: is false it is true, I don't. I'm not being dishonest.
Speaker 1: I would never try to do that. I'm straight up
Speaker 1: with everybody, and I tell everybody I have no idea
Speaker 1: if a single story I have ever read, even the
Speaker 1: ones told to me by other people that I've written
Speaker 1: stories around, I have no idea if they're true. But
Speaker 1: they're damn good stories. They're damn good stories, and I
Speaker 1: love doing them. So that's the deal with this channel.
Speaker 1: And if you don't like that, don't comment. Don't don't
Speaker 1: comment and give me your opinion on if we should
Speaker 1: do vetted true stories or not. Don't because there's no
Speaker 1: one can prove a story is true. Do it. If
Speaker 1: you think you can do it, do it, show it
Speaker 1: to me. So don't comment and give me that bull crap.
Speaker 1: Let's just enjoy a good story, everybody, relax, Let's have
Speaker 1: a good time. You can tell I'm a little aggravated
Speaker 1: at some of these people, and it's ninety nine percent
Speaker 1: of the comments on channel are fabulous. We have the
Speaker 1: nicest people on the internet, but there's one out of
Speaker 1: a thousand that'll pop up. And I don't know where
Speaker 1: these people come from. I don't I got an email
Speaker 1: the other day from some guy. He's all been out
Speaker 1: of shape because I spend thirty seconds in two videos
Speaker 1: per month and I talk about Yetie bar soaps and
Speaker 1: he says he's gonna he's not gonna listen anymore because
Speaker 1: he has to fast forward three or four minutes through
Speaker 1: to get past it. Now, you think he's over overstating
Speaker 1: that a little bit. So my response to him, I'd
Speaker 1: love to tell you his name, because he's a real jackass,
Speaker 1: but I'm not gonna do that. I don't want to
Speaker 1: draw attention to him. And I'll bet you he's listening.
Speaker 1: I bet you he's listening, because sometimes they just can't
Speaker 1: go away. My response to him was, the only person
Speaker 1: I really want to lose this week from my podcast
Speaker 1: is you, brother. You're the only one I want to
Speaker 1: want to lose. Do these Yetti bar ads for the
Speaker 1: Yetti Brothers not because there's any money in it, because
Speaker 1: there isn't there isn't any money in it. They pay
Speaker 1: me a little stipend, a little bitty piece of a
Speaker 1: sale if you use that DC ten code. That makes
Speaker 1: me an affiliate with their company. But hey, if it
Speaker 1: really hacks you guys off that I talk about my buddies,
Speaker 1: the Yetti Brothers and their soaps. There are other podcasts
Speaker 1: doing ads for them now, Nance at Buckeye, Bigfoot, Nioma
Speaker 1: Finn with the Nioma Finn channel, Brian Brian with Sasquatch Odyssey,
Speaker 1: he's doing ads for them. You guys, use their codes,
Speaker 1: don't use my code. Use their codes. I do these
Speaker 1: ads because I love these guys and I want to
Speaker 1: see their business do well. Sometimes when I talk about
Speaker 1: their soap, they get a big boost in sales. I
Speaker 1: don't know why. I don't know why any but he
Speaker 1: listens to me. But it's a great product. It really
Speaker 1: is a great product, and it's the only soap I use. Now,
Speaker 1: I'm not saying my wife does. She has her own
Speaker 1: soaps that she uses. But as a dude, I love
Speaker 1: the way those soaps smell and I use them. But
Speaker 1: don't use the code DC ten. If it really gets
Speaker 1: under your skin that I'm selling that I'm helping these
Speaker 1: guys try to build their business. It just blows me
Speaker 1: away that people can't take a thirty second little uh.
Speaker 1: I guess it's an ad for two guys hustling trying
Speaker 1: to make a soap company go so to show you
Speaker 1: that it's not for the money. Use somebody else's code,
Speaker 1: give it all to use Neoma Fenn's code, or Nance's
Speaker 1: code or Brian at Sasquatch Odyssey, Lily, what are you
Speaker 1: barking at? Use their code and let the commissions go
Speaker 1: to them because I don't care about it. But I'm
Speaker 1: going to continue to help those guys, and about every
Speaker 1: I don't know, every third or fourth podcast, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: talk about those soaps because they're just good people. And
Speaker 1: I love good people, and if I can help good people,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do it. Oh man, that turned into a rant.
Speaker 1: I don't know if these stories are true. I've never
Speaker 1: claimed one is true or one isn't. Anybody else could
Speaker 1: read the same story I read, and that's happened before,
Speaker 1: and what I hear from them is, oh, he's an
Speaker 1: old BS guy, blah blah blah. And I'll read the
Speaker 1: same story and I get comments from people those same people.
Speaker 1: I don't know. It just it is amazing how twisted
Speaker 1: it is in this bigfoot world. And you know what,
Speaker 1: it makes me want to quit doing Bigfoot stories. It
Speaker 1: really does. I hate to say that, but the Bigfoot community,
Speaker 1: I can't stand them. I cannot stand the Bigfoot purists.
Speaker 1: They make they drive me insane. Okay, that's all I'm
Speaker 1: gonna say. And I think you guys know what I'm
Speaker 1: talking about. All you have to do is you'll find
Speaker 1: them in the comments section. All right, you guys, have
Speaker 1: a great weekend and we'll talk to you on the
Speaker 1: next podcast. Love you guys, See you then.