A local charter boat captain and the Flathead Lake monster myth will be featured this weekend on a television show called “Monsters and Mysteries in America.”

Tim Shattuck said he was contacted “out of the blue” by a production company soon after he started his Flathead Lake Monster Charters business last October. Shattuck previously worked for another charter boat operation for about 10 years.

“They flew in some people from California and North Carolina in December,” Shattuck said, noting that most of the production was done at his Somers-area home.  

The show on the Destination America channel (available on some satellite and cable television systems) will air Sunday at 8 p.m.

“It will focus more on the folklore and myths” about the Flathead Lake monster, said Shattuck, who claims he has seen the “monster” twice.

“I think it’s a big old fish,” he said. “I think it’s a lake sturgeon. You have to have some common sense about really what could live in this big lake.”

Some species of sturgeon can live more than 100 years. Shattuck said his best view of the creature was actually on a fish finder.

“This fish that was appearing on my graph was eight or nine feet long. It literally followed us,” said Shattuck, stressing that he has high confidence in his ability to read the fish finder and the lake.

Shattuck and his clients have brought in more than 800 trophy lake trout 36 inches or longer over the last 10 years. He hopes the show will generate some business, or at least spur interest for people to visit Flathead Lake and the surrounding area.

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by email at jmann@dailyinterlake.com.