To start things off, I just wanted to clarify to everyone what exactly sucker-spearing is. It's a type of fishing you do in streams at night with waders and spears. AKA, spearing suckers. Good, now that we got the fundamentals of the sport out of the way, I thought I would share this story to everyone that deliberatly made me and everyone with me feel extremely uncomfortable that night.

About three years ago my Uncle called me up to go sucker-spearing with him and my cousin. I said sure, hung up, and about five minutes later he called me again. Apparently my friend Will and his parents/brother were going to tag along with us for the night as well.

We got the gear all packed up at around 8:00 p.m and headed to the east coast of Michigan, right down the road from Lake Huron. An hour later, we parked along the road and headed down to a stream that was emptying into the lake. We were there for an approx. 25 min. because the water was nothing but mud, so we hopped back into the vehicles and went down the road more. Just to clarify to everyone, we wouldn't get in trouble with the law seeming as my Uncle apparently has fished here many times before and the woods were public. Now, driving up and down to find another stream, we finally found one about 10 min. later. I will say there literally were no houses in sight. The only lights I remember witnessing were the moon, stars, the headlights, and our lanterns/flashlights. Just imagine the dark woods. Very spooky.

Now, to shorten the story, the stream was not very murky and muddy so we started fishing. Hours passed and we speared and speared and speared. We then were carrying quite a load so we all started heading back to the trucks to empty the baskets into the coolers. We made it to the trucks, emptied the fish, and we all started heading back into the woods except for my friends Will's mother. She told us to go and she'll catch up because she wanted to grab her cigarettes out of the truck. We all started heading down to the stream yet my friend Will wanted to stay back behind the group and walk slower so his mother would see our flashlights and catch up.

Will and I were talking about girls I think then suddenly we heard very loud screaming behind us. Will and I looked at each other and booked it to his mom who was about 100 yards in the woods away from the trucks and about 40 yards away from us. We found her while shining our flashlights on her. She ran to us and said "point your flashlights back over there". Behind where she was running and to our surprise was a man just slowing walking back into the woods, not even giving us a glance. My heart skipped a beat and my friend Will jumped back and grabbed his mom. We then all three booked it and found the others already in the stream. His mother was crying and once she settled down after hanging on to her husband, she told us what had happened.

She told us she just lighted a cigarette and started walking down the path when he came out of the trees to her left. He just walked up beside her and said nothing. He just looked at her. He had no flashlight and was just walking blindly through the woods. I'm not fully accurate on his clothing because when I shone the light on him, I was too busy trying to catch the face yet screaming inside because of the "catching you off-guard" part. He didn't seem to have a shirt on but he had what looked like black pants.

The worst thing she told us though, his eyes were shining. Completely lit up like fire. He never looked at who was shining the flashlights on him and we only saw the side of his face as he kept on walking so I'm not sure his eyes "lit up" like she said. I think she exaggerated a bit. She wouldn't spear anymore after that so about an hour later, we left. We never went back since.

This really happened and I'm sorry I didn't come out with it sooner. Never really crossed my mind to put it up on here when I signed up a few months back.

[edit on 3-7-2009 by Water-tastes-good]

Weird story one that you will never get to the bottom of but that will stay with you forever.

Could the light of her cigarrette have reflected off his eyes? She was probably sent straight into flight mode by the strange appearance of the unexpected man.

Creepy. Sounds like he was either on drugs or very mental.

[edit on 3-7-2009 by antar]

I got the heebbie jeebies reading that.

I have a picture of it burned into my mind now.
Reminds be of the old stories I grew up hearing about the boogie man.
He has glowing red eyes.
And will grab your feet if you hang them off the edge of the bed.


[edit on 3/7/2009 by reticledc]

Reminds me of the "Mothman" stories you can read about.

It is odd I just watched that movie again about 2 nights ago.

Maybe it could have been a guy sleep walking, just to throw that out there? It would explain why he didn't seem to respond very much if anything to the lights. People do strange things when they're sleep walking, even so far as murder their in-laws in the middle of the night and driving their car successfully to the house as well.

Ughhhh! That completely creeped me out reading that! Wow...I probably would have had a heart attack!
Thanks for sharing though! I will now be keeping an eye out in the woods behind my house for the rest of my life!

That is creepy, and I do live in your area. No sucker fishing for me!

I love reading stories like these, though out of interest in mystery rather than any disregard for the seriousness of the events. I know how terrifying these strange occurrences can be.

You'll likely never know the reason for the man's appearance and behavior; I can't offer any unique explanation. But regardless of whether it was a mere earthly event or something more, it does make for a frightening story !

[edit on 3/7/09 by paperplanes]

Well it's a good thing all 3 of you saw this "man" and am glad no one was hurt.. He was probably hungry and just wanted some fish! Nah j/k spooky story sounds ghostly.

That would certainly give you a fright

My thought is it could have been a homeless guy living out in the woods for whatever reason , heard you guys there and came over for a look .
If so its not surprising he didn't say anything and wandered off again .
Living that way would make you a bit strange .
There are home less people living out in the bush around my area , and they a tad strange I'd imagine .

It is possible it was the ghost of some early native american like spirit. They can manifest themselves to people of their choosing, for whatever the reason. Maybe it was a sign. A warning. Creepy and Awesome!

One of my rules of going into the bush...go well armed. Period.

My friends and I maybe a little nuts....we would have pursued and captured whatever/whomever it was. We have "let a few fly" at some rustlers we caught on a friends land about 2am before.

One aint a problem...unless its like the rabbit on Monty Python

Nope, you frazzle one of our ladies and you have a problem on your hands.

We Texans are a bit crazy at times though...

Probably a homeless person or someone on hallucinogenic drugs walking around the woods... People are known to do that kind of stuff on acid and mushrooms because its best to be in nature on those type of drugs, although most likely theyd be friendly and would have said something to your buddies mom... The eyes shiney thing could be drugs too, drugs do all kinda stuff to your eyes, from making pupils big, to making them all glassy, sometimes when they are glassy and red they can appear to be "glowing".

Also like I said it could be a homeless person, where I live theres lotsa homeless people and they are really weird sometimes, like theyll just walk up to people and just stare. Weird stuff like that.

Who knows though, weird story!

[edit on 4-7-2009 by jeasahtheseer]

[edit on 4-7-2009 by jeasahtheseer]

[edit on 4-7-2009 by jeasahtheseer]