Apparently some North Carolina lakes of considerable depth generate as many legendary tales as they do fish tales.
Anglers, boaters and campers at John H. Kerr Reservoir (aka Buggs Island) have heard stories of divers searching underwater for a crashed airplane and being frightened to the surface by “catfish so large they could swallow a man.”
While the 143-pound world-record blue catfish was caught three years ago from Kerr Lake, it was probably large enough to eat only a diver’s tank, not the whole guy from facemask to flippers.
It seems another airplane legend augured into Badin Lake about the same time.
“People have told for a long time a story about a World War II bomber that crashed in the lake when a pilot supposedly was going to fly low and dip his wings for his parents on the shore; one wing hit the water, and he cart-wheeled into the lake and the bomber sank,” guide Maynard Edwards said. “Supposedly, the military searched the lake and couldn’t locate a plane as big as a house.”
Edwards pointed out that such a plane would have leaked aviation and hydraulic fluid, not to mention papers that should have floated to the surface.
“People have been all over this lake with electronics and never found any sign of an airplane,” he said. “I’ve got a great depth-finder, and it’s never showed me an airplane.
“I think that story is garbage.”
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