Lake Willoughby creature- a giant eel?

Lake Willoughby is a lake in Vermont USA It is a glacial lake over 300 feet (95 metres) deep. Fish stocks include rainbow trout , salmon (mainly stocked), burbot, yellow perch, lake chub, common shiner, and a so called round whitefish which is a native species of Vermont. The lake is known to fishermen for producing some of the largest trout in the area. It is also said to be home to a monster called Wila or Willy. Stories of the creature go back some years.

In August 14, 1868, the story of a "lake monster" appeared in the Caledonian newspaper. "It is reported that the great water snake at Willoughby Lake was killed Wednesday of last week by Stephen Edmonds of Newport, VT., a lad of twelve years. Rushing boldly upon the monster he severed its body with a sickle. On actual measurement the two pieces were found to be 23 feet in length."
Perhaps it was a giant eel?

According to local folklore, there is an underground passageway between Lake Willoughby and Crystal Lake . One local story goes that many years ago, a team of horses crashed through the winter ice on Lake Willoughby only to be found months later in Crystal Lake..

In the 1950’s a team of divers looking for the body of a man presumed drowned after his boat capsized claimed to see a huge hole in the bottom of the lake and saw eels 8 feet( 2. 6 metres) long.

On September 9, 1986 Audrey Besse of Monmouth Beach, New Jersey, saw an unknown creature in Willoughby Lake. The sighting was filed with the International Dracontology Society of Lake Memphremagog . Her sighting is as follows:While sitting on the "point" near the Wheeler's Camps beach more than 15 years ago, Audrey, Ann Hauk (her mother), and a friend saw a long, dark, creature with two or three humps in the middle of the lake, swimming toward the south end. Mrs. Besse went for her binoculars and camera, but the creature had submerged before she could use them.

So does a family of large eels live in the lake? It is a glacial lake like many others in which creatures have been sighted. If anyone knows of any more recent sightings please post a comment.

More can be found in these books:

The Vermont Monster Guide by Joseph A. Citro; artwork by Stephen R. Bissette; published in 2009 by the University Press of New England in Lebanon, New Hampshire;

Willoughby Lake Legends and Legacies," Harriet F. Fisher. Academy Books, Rutland, Vermont. 1988..