This story took place in 2013, It was the beginning of Summer and Me and my brother Wes had just gotten to my Uncle Matt's house in Mayersville, which is a couple of miles from the nearby Mississippi River. Uncle Matt gave us both his famous "Matt Hugs" as we entered. 

After we unpacked we had a few drinks since Wes finally turned 21 last month since I'm only a year older, but he has drunk before on several occasions. We just chatted about nonsensical stuff, played pool, all the fun stuff. 

The next day we left to go camping since our Aunt Melissa was away on a business trip. As we were driving my Uncle told us there may be Gators and Bull Sharks at the Mississippi River. But then he told us he had seen something much worse down there when he was our age. He spoke of a 7 or 8 ft tall lake monster that resembled a more monstrous version of The Creature from the Black Lagoon. 

"You got to be pulling our chain." Wes said

"No my boy it's all true, I saw em when I was fishing for a Walleye. When I was reeling in my catch it actually had the balls to try and take my fish. I thought it was a Bull Shark at first until I reeled in the head of the Walleye and saw them glowing eyes under the water. I almost shit myself when I got a better look at it."

My brother still didn't really believe it but he gave Uncle Matt the benefit of the doubt, but i was quite intrigued. My uncle was 6'4 and lifted weights every day, the guy is practically built like Vin Diesel. He is usually never scared of anything, so if this thing managed to do it, it must've been a big deal.

When we parked at the camping spot we walked the trail down to the small beach connected to the River. We unpacked our camping gear, fishing gear, and Uncle Matt's M14 rifle which he kept in a special case. After setting up our tents me and Wes went into the woods to get firewood. 

When dusk set in we were cooking the 2 Walleyes that we caught. When Wes was cooking the Potatoes I heard the water splash near the shallow part of the beach. 

"The hell was that?" I said 

"Probably a Catfish" Wes told me 

The splashing then happened again before it stopped once more. 

"Hope that ain't a gator." Uncle Matt said

"No way, not out here" Wes said 

We were then listening to the song "Asylum" by Disturbed while we were eating. When we finished I shot my girlfriend some pictures of the Walleyes we caught before stuffing the phone in my pocket. Wes went to take a piss out in the bushes while the rest of us ate. 

"Hope there ain't no snake in them bushes!" Uncle Matt said, sipping a beer. 

"Funny!" Wes called out 

I then decided to take a dip in the river since it was hot as hell that day. After taking off my white tank top, I changed into my bathing suit before jumping in. My Uncle Matt was reading a hardcover copy of the book IT while Wes was playing a game on his phone. When I went underwater for the second time, I felt something like a hand tightly grab at my left calf.

I opened my eyes in the blurry water to barely make out some sort of humanoid fish thing with sharp spikes on its back. I kicked it as hard as I could several times until it finally relented when I gave it a good kick to what I assumed was its face. I darted out of the water, screaming like a banshee towards Uncle Matt and Wes. I noticed 3 big, but not severe or fatal cuts on my calf. 

"What the hell happened?!" Uncle Matt asked 

"There's something in the water." I said as he grabbed the first aid kit out of his tent. 

"What are you talking about?" Wes said 

"I saw it, it wasn't a Bull Shark, it was something else, some kind of fish with arms." I said 

Uncle Matt comes out with the gauze and antiseptic. He cleaned and dressed my wound before wrapping my calf in gauze.  

"Did you get a look at it?" Uncle Matt said 

"Sorta, it was the size of a man, probably bigger. And it had these spikes on its back." I said 

"Shit it has to be the monster from the story." Wes stated 

"Oh now you believe it?" I snarked 

"Well, what the hell kind of fish leaves a precise scratch like that?" Wes replied 

My Uncle then stands frozen, looking at the river. I and Wes go to see what's wrong. Then we both freeze in fear as well when we see two glowing eyes of a yellowish-green color from underwater. They were completely devoid of any irises or pupils, just practically COD zombies style eyes. 

"What the fuck is that?" Wes asked, now sweating 

Uncle Matt runs to retrieve his rifle. He fires 4 rounds in the water to scare it off. When the waves in the water from the bullets settle, the eyes were gone. 

"Looks like it left, for now." Uncle Matt said 

"What if it comes back?" I asked 

"We got weapons so if it comes back we can hopefully just light it up." Uncle Matt answered 

"If it can't go on land i guess we'll be good." Wes said 

When we clocked out for the night I kept watch for the monster with the AR-15 since it was the only gun we had on us besides the .357. In hindsight, I have no idea why we didn't leave right then and there. I guess we just wanted to prove we were the 3 badasses who weren't afraid of shit. 

After 20 minutes pass I got bored and decided to pass the time by playing Angry Birds. When I went to wake Uncle Matt for his watch shift, I heard a loud, alligator-like hissing noise coming from the bushes where Wes pissed. However, the small growl that followed the hissing was nothing that an Alligator would sound off. 

I slowly and cautiously walked up to the bush, gun tightly grasped in my hand. I turned on its under-barrel flashlight and I used the Night Vision scope that was attached to see what was in there. I aimed the flashlight at the bush and what I saw would make even the toughest folk shit themselves. 

It was a large grayish humanoid creature with fin-like webs on its forearms. It also had webbing on its three-toed feet. It had a tail resembling that of a catfish, black spikes on its back, three-fingered hands with sharp claws, and a maw filled with pointed teeth, as well as yellow eyes with black slanted pupils like that of a snake. It's left eye looked blinded with what looked like a scar from a blade underneath. It hissed at me as it opened its mouth, clearly feeling threatened.

"Holy fuck!!" I yelled as I fired nearly the entire magazine at it while screaming my lungs out from fear. I must've hit it, because it shrieked in pain as it darted past me on all fours and back into the water. I ran back to the tents to see Wes and Uncle Matt up with machetes in hand, lowering them with relief when they saw me. 

"Are you okay Roger?" Uncle Matt asked, concerned 

"Yeah I managed to get a good shot at it and it ran off into the water."

"Let's just get our asses back to the house before the SOB comes back." Wes said as we ran to the car with nothing but our weapons, leaving all the other shit behind.  

We sped the hell out of there as soon as we got in the car. Uncle Matt called the police about what happened while me and Wes had a couple more beers to process what happened.

The next morning we went to retrieve our stuff. Several police cruisers were already there. Our tents and everything else were mostly untouched, but all our food was predictably gone, and our coolers were completely trashed with huge claw marks, marks unlike any I've ever seen. 

"Better that being eaten then us." Wes said 

"Yeah no shit," I said 

We talked to the Sheriff for a little bit about what we saw. He said he wouldn't have believed us if not for the blue colored blood they recovered. 

"Blood?" Uncle Matt asked. 

"Yup, whatever you shot definitely wasn't no Gator or anything around here. In my 38 years in the force I've never done a case like this. If you guys promise to keep quiet about this I got some cash waiting." Said the Sheriff as we got our tents and fishing gear. They seize our destroyed coolers for evidence, which we obviously didn't mind as the Sheriff wrote us the massive check. The number I won't disclose. 

After the incident, we haven't talked about the "river creature" as my Uncle called it since. 

Present day and we still haven't seen or heard of it to this day. Now I'm 28 and married to my beautiful wife of 5 years.  

I only fear one thing, what if there are a whole SPECIES of those things lurking in the river somewhere, waiting for their next unsuspecting meal. I don't know what the hell that town is hiding, but I preferably don't want nothing to do with any of it ever again. 

My advice: If you're camping by the Mississippi River, please have some protection. Anything 

I'll update you guys if anything else happens.