Tuesday 22 May 2012

A Story of Loch Ness Eels


I came across this multi part story while searching on the Internet a few days back. The reason I had not seen it before was because the stories had only been posted in the last two weeks. My comments below contain spoilers, so feel free to read the originals first. Note this is a fictional work. I initially thought it might have a grain of truth, but as the author has posted instalments and the plot has developed, it is just as well it is just a story!

Part One can be found here.

Part Two can be found here.

Part Three can be found here.

Part Four can be found here.

Part Five can be found here.

UPDATE: The author has removed these chapters but hopes to put them back in at a future time.

The story concerns a man who was a keen angler who had received a call for help to go up to Loch Ness to help a friend who had bought a hotel in or around Foyers. While up at the loch, he was regaled with a few interesting tales by the local fishermen such as the Fort William boy who was trapped in a coil by a giant eel and the submersible under Castle Urquhart that fled from eels bigger than itself. Suitably sceptical, he decided to try out his fishing rod in the loch at Foyers but only pulled up a dog like rib cage. Walking over the Foyers river later he noticed a line of eighteen inch eels foraging their way up the river. The systematic way they did this was unusual but he did not think much more of it.

On a return visit to the Loch, he brought his fifty pounder line to have a go at the Loch Ness pike he had been told about. His first venture back with two lines at night ended with a trout head being reeled in after something big grabbed it and ran the line out. The second heavier line with a piece of mackerel on it was reeled in but then with a jolt began to run deep. It turned out to be a seal but a local incident elsewhere with a dead seal later made him think it was his hook that injured the seal but the vet told him the seal had died from a bite from something else in the loch which had led to an infection.

The story develops until finally our angling author hooks a huge eel which leads to a fish expert joining the hunt and we enter a world of cannibal eels which attack anything in their path yet flee from a humble torch when it lights on their strange pale eyes.

It's a fascinating read whether it is true or not. If it was true, I agree with the author's sentiment that he would never swim in Loch Ness again, let alone canoe (well, I was already of that opinion!). However, the creatures portrayed in the story are to say the least vicious and come across as the Loch Ness version of piranhas.

From a purely Loch Ness Monster Theory point of view, I found some parts of the story interesting.

  • The pale eyes of the eels suggesting a nocturnal creature.
  • The slime marks on a bank near a landed creature which suggested some terrestrial mobility,
  • The ability to expand their bodies with gas which spoke of high buoyancy (the author suggested eels do this as a decompression guard against the bends).
  • The cannibalistic nature of the animals which spoke to the food supply issues.

So enjoy the story. I suspect there will be further instalments which may see these creatures and the truth of the matter develop with the storyline.The only remaining question is who wrote this story? Perhaps someone already known to the Nessie community?




16 comments:

  1. Very interesting. I've read another story called simply the Loch by Steve Alten and in it the author posits that the monster is a very large eel that grew to "monster" size because it could not get out the loch to breed. Still the teeth in those things head and having another set of jaws in their throats, I wouldn't go swimming in the Loch either if those beasties are roaming around! Good luck on the monster hunt!

    -Javiere

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    1. Funny you should say that, I fnally got round to ordering a copy yesterday. I don't read these fictional Nessie stories much ... sceptics would say I read them all the time. :)

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    2. Lol I think your work is quite thorough and has a logical approach. Conventional logic I feel proves it rides the short bus depending on who's speaking at the time. You've revived my love of Nessie when skeptics try to beat it out of you. I felt the Loch was a good read and the monster was portrayed very well. Reminds me of the man that was diving and had his field of view dominated by a large living something, then he became the human torpedo to get away. I look forward to hear about your expedition.

      -Javiere

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    3. Anon, you described a moray eel (moray's have 2 sets of jaws, one in the throat), there are no moray eels in the loch as moray eels are salt or brackish water species.

      It could be an exceptionally gargantuan European eel Anguilla anguilla but I doubt that.

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    4. yes pharyngeal jaws. this was supposed to be a larger moray relative of some sort that lives in fresh and salt water. I won't say more as it gives the story away, but that's why it's fiction. It has plausibility of a yet discovered eel species.

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    5. I wrote the story about the Loch Ness Eel some time ago and in error put the first part on Blogger.com, unfortunately within six hours of posting further parts of the story Adsense accused me of illegal clicking, which I know nothing about, being a compleat computer clutz.
      I converted parts 3,4 and 5 back to draft until the business with Adsense is resolved and have also been asked to send part of the story to a literary agent.
      My apologies for the suspence, but be assured the whole story could be totally illogically logical, with the local stories and research that I carried out.
      I gave the full copy to a colleague who talked about it all the way round the golf course.
      Eels are the least documented sizeable fish, consequently a lot of the existing ideas are in question.
      After my experiences I wouldn't take a small boat on Loch Ness when the water is low at night under any circumstances.

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    6. Thanks for replying, legin37. I look forward to more instalments but your last sentence speaks of something real rather than fictional? Care to expand here or privately at shimei123@yahoo.co.uk ?

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    7. My profuse apologies to all the readers of my eel story, I have had to withdraw the whole story, hopefully on a temporary basis, owing to some apparent breaches of the way it was published.
      One of my sons is a top computer guy in San Francisco and he has sent me a number emails saying that I had set all sorts of bells ringing in various places causing problems.
      Be assured I will do my best to get it published one way or another as soon as possible and I greatly appreciate your comments and thank you all.
      I also edit www.barrel-dregs.com, which exposes a lot of the nasty activities in the pub industry, often with some humour, villains do not like being laughed at.
      I enjoy investigating unusual things and exposing cons and nasty activities, I have a massive fund of unusual fishing and aquatic stories, gleaned over many years.
      Having said all that,I have now emerged from anonimity.

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  2. Hmmm...Well, this is, indeed, a very interesting story! However, I highly doubt that it is true. Just by reading it, I can already notice that it appears to have all of the characteristics of a legend, a folk-tale, or something like that. In my opinion, this story is most likely to be fictional. :)

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  3. I think someone would have noticed by now if the Loch had huge carnivorous eels eating everything in sight.There were certainly tales of large eels being caught many years ago but not of them eating fishermen or sheep.I think this person may have heard the stories .Always nice to read something about the Loch though,fiction or otherwise.
    btw do you mean you haven't read my book Roland? Dark Ness by Tabitca Cope.

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    1. Tabitca, I am terrible at reading fictional works. I guess the wild and wacky world of Fortean phenomemon provides enough paperback excitement (though not as well written).

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    2. Having said that, I just bought your kindle version today.

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  4. Okay, its a novel or short story but a good read so far. The eels get bigger with the telling of the story ...

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  5. This is actually a rather good piece of fiction, I have to say. I'm personally a proponent of the long-necked pinniped theory myself, but I like some of the theorising in this. The silt as means of avoiding detection is fairly common nowadays but is definitely interesting, and I like the idea that it's the eels' decompression which makes them appear like humps. I eagerly await part 5!

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  6. just found this and am excited to read the story! thanks for blogging! i live in alaska and took my girls to the loch two summers ago. it was always a childhood dream of mine. it was amazing......

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  7. Part five just published by our anonymous author.

    http://5tlne.blogspot.co.uk/

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