fyi
here is a video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biCKqJzqqBE&feature=related
obviously the sound quality is not like what you experience but I can hear them well over 100 yards downstream…possibly more
I heard that inside the pitch black
tunnel on Lake Calderwood. A little startling.
otter
I paddled upon an otter the other day and it seemed to be leading me away from its den by making an extremely loud splashing noise and then swimming erratically back and forth in front of me. occasionally he would make the noise again. I would describe it as a bowling ball being dropped in the water.
Ryan L.
too…
funny Man! Maybe some DNR guys are secretly disposing of beaver by trapping, freezing, and air dropping at night:-)They don’t know that beaver can’t fly:-)
Thanks Bro
If we take away all sight, and add in totally windless conditions i can see how that beaver was giving us a big “schooling!” The times I’ve seen them doing their thing was in daylight with wind. Funny buggers!
I once was fly fishing a small trout stream kneeling to the point that water was at chest level. I saw this amazing shadow come out from under a bank and then go back in. I fished to this “huge brown” for awhile until the shadow reappeared, turned towards me, and became a big-butt beaver that swam right under my casting arm. HA!
One cold, dark night…
…my wife and I were walking down “Snake Road” in southern Illinois.
http://michherptrips.webs.com/acoldrainysnakeroad.htm
Winter’s Pond was on one side of us, and near 100 ft tall limestone bluffs on the other. Water is on both sides of the narrow road. Seeps on the bluff side form pools next to the cliff. We were just enjoying a midnight stroll, listening to the swamp critters. Suddenly we heard a really loud splash, it sounded like somebody threw a body off the bluff. We froze for a moment, then we heard it again. We had our headlamps off until then, but after the 2nd splash we turned them on. We heard the noise again and followed it to a large cliffside pool. I’ve seen lots of snakes, big snakes, in this area, but never one this big. This thing was swimming around in this pool with it’s neck way up out of the water, it would slam it’s head down into the pool, apparantly fishing for frogs or something. It’s body looped up out of the water behind it like a sea monster. This snake must have realistically been 10 feet long, and as big around as my thigh. We watched it fish for about 10 minutes, it seemed oblivious to us. We decided to end our stroll there, and walked carefully back out to the gate and our car. The road is gated off twice a year for reptile migration. That was our last midnight stroll on snake road. I would like to get back down there one of these days though. DAYS I said.
This is why…
…I live in the northern part of the country. We lived in India for a couple years when I was a kid and I got my lifetime fill of snakes, scorpions, and other reptiles, insects and arachnids, thank you very much 
What kind of
snake was it? Sounds creepy!
Sounds
I live next a big swamp, have wilderness camped for years,am a sportsman/outdoorsman, and often hear strange and unexplained noises at night. I have no answer!
Turtle
Otter also
I second Radiomix’s Otter theory. They hunt at night and make a loud splash at times, either sliding or jumping into the water off of shore or when rentering the water when in the lake already. I have been out on the water a few times where otters are sticking their head out of the water, and when you get too close, they go under, and then after you pass by, they come up out of the water behind you and you hear a loud splash.
Could have been FE after a Beanie
Weenie dinner.
Possible otters
I’ll 3rd the otter theory. I stumbled on this thread after trying to do some research into what I saw last evening. I discovered a family of otters a few hundred yards from our house down a creek bend that leads into a lake. I’ve seen them multiple times when fishing in my kayak, and have been slowly trying to get closer to them to check them out. Last night when paddling down the creek, as a previous post stated one was appearing to maybe be leading me away from their den, swimming right toward me then by/under my kayak toward the lake opening and would stay swimming above water zig zagging and going in circles for several minutes. I could spot at least two others up stream about 20 yards, and one was also zig zagging between the banks with his head above water. This is the fist time I had seen 3. I lost sight of the one behind me & Suddenly about 10 yards behind me was an enormous splash sound (as stated, like a frozen turkey dropped from a plane) I almost jumped out of my kayak it was so loud and startling. I thought maybe it was a really REALLY massive Bass, but was hesitant to throw my shad lure in the direction not knowing where the otter was and if he might go after it. About 2 minutes later I saw an otter in front of me disappear under water followed by the same massive splash sound a few feet away. I was trying to research if this was normal or perhaps an aggressive or territorial action towards me. I also never actually saw the otter make a thrashing motion while above water to cause the splash so maybe it was a massive Bass or cat he was chasing out of the bank? But really was just too loud for that and no double splash sound like a fish jumping just a really loud pop.
I know exactly what you are talking about. I got caught on a small river in Ohio.“Cuyahoga”. I had a cheapo flashlight in my mouth barely able to see the front of the kayak and started to hear those bolling ball dropped sounds… they left a wake of a ten yr old child atleast. Spray up to three feet… perfect plunks.
It was creepy as hell. If I spooked something on land and I’m on the river, why in the hell would it jump in? Yea, big foot tossing cinder blocks… hell maybe… I was just trying to remember the choke points and paddle as fast as I can to get the hell out of there. Was atleast 8 different splashes, all next to shore but loud. I could never see it whatever it was drop.
I know there are river otters in that area, I’ve filmed them but they really don’t seem big enough. Although a river otter would certainly give the aero dynamic plunge that I heard. So yea your not crazy lol… maybe I’ll pack a bigger light next time.
Really… on the crooked river that’s like 70 miles long? Starting from just above East Branch reservoir till Lake Erie? yea that’s a small river…
And, they were most likely carp
Salmon jump in the air to knock off sea lice. I hear em all night long in the fall on the Sacramento River.
Beaver…
Beavers?
Some of the other suggestions are certainly possible, but if I heard something like that, I’d think it might be a beaver.
If it was in Florida, I would say a gator. If it was the Suwanee River, I would say a sturgeon jumping.
Up country I have heard beavers slap their tail on the water.