Their Drone Filmed Something Behind the Boat

On August 2, 2024, a film crew was shooting scenes for Lucy and the Lake Monster on Lake Champlain. The movie followed a young girl and her grandfather searching for Champ, the mysterious creature said to inhabit the lake.

Two actors were sitting in a small rowboat while a drone filmed from overhead. The scene went smoothly, and nobody noticed anything unusual.

Later, co-writer Kelly Tabor was reviewing the footage when she spotted something unexpected. A long, dark figure had moved beneath the water behind the rowboat, passing close enough to appear in the same frame.

Something Was Moving Behind the Boat

The drone had been recording in Bulwagga Bay, near Port Henry on the New York side of Lake Champlain. From above, the camera had a clear view of the rowboat and the surrounding water.

In the footage, a dark shape appeared beneath the surface and moved behind the actors. Its outline looked elongated, although the water made its exact proportions difficult to judge.

The filmmakers had one useful advantage when examining the recording. They knew the rowboat’s measurements: 142 inches long and approximately 50.5 inches wide.

That gave them something familiar to compare with the mysterious figure. Tabor and director Richard Rossi believed it appeared longer than the boat, which measured nearly 12 feet from end to end.

The actors apparently never saw it. They continued performing their scene while the drone recorded what was happening behind them.

Kelly Tabor Had Been Searching for Champ Since Childhood

Tabor had been fascinated by the Champ legend for years. As a child, she spent summers around Lake Champlain with her grandfather, listening to stories about the creature and hoping to see it herself.

She continued looking during later visits but never experienced the encounter she’d been hoping for. Eventually, those childhood memories inspired her to develop Lucy and the Lake Monster with Rossi.

The movie tells the story of a young girl who searches for Champ alongside her grandfather. Its characters were inspired partly by Tabor’s experiences growing up around the lake.

Filming brought her back to the same waters she’d explored as a child. This time, she had a production crew, professional cameras, and a story built around the creature she’d always wanted to find.

The discovery happened while she was doing something completely ordinary: reviewing material from the day’s filming.

The Filmmakers Shared Their Discovery

After examining the recording, Tabor and Rossi began discussing what their camera might have captured. Tabor was particularly excited, believing the figure could be the creature she’d spent so many years searching for.

Rossi wanted a closer examination before reaching a conclusion. The filmmakers began sharing their discovery with others, including people they hoped could help identify what was moving beneath the surface.

In August 2024, news outlets picked up the story, and a short excerpt of the drone recording began circulating online. Viewers could watch the dark outline moving through the water with the rowboat nearby.

The filmmakers said the publicly released clip was part of a longer recording. Additional material could show how the figure entered the frame, how it moved through the water, and what happened after it passed the boat.

That longer footage became especially interesting because the discovery had been completely unexpected. The drone was already filming when the movement occurred, giving the crew a recording they could examine frame by frame.

Bulwagga Bay Has a History of Strange Sightings

The location added another intriguing detail to the story. Bulwagga Bay has appeared in earlier accounts of unusual creatures and movements in Lake Champlain.

Reports of Champ date back many decades. Witnesses have described long-necked figures, dark humps breaking the surface, and large objects moving through the water.

One of the most famous encounters occurred in 1977, when Sandra Mansi photographed something resembling a long neck and head rising from the lake. Her picture attracted international attention and became one of the best-known images associated with Champ.

The filmmakers’ discovery was different. Instead of someone watching from shore and trying to photograph a distant creature, the drone recorded movement from directly above.

That perspective allowed viewers to see something beneath the water rather than waiting for it to break the surface. It also gave researchers a chance to examine its movement alongside a nearby object of known size.

More than four decades separated Mansi’s famous picture from the drone recording. The equipment had changed enormously, but Lake Champlain was still producing surprises.

William Shatner Brought the Footage to Television

In October 2025, the discovery reached a much larger audience when it appeared on The UnXplained with William Shatner. The History Channel series featured the recording in an episode called Terrors of the Deep.

The program explored the Champ legend and showed viewers the unusual movement captured during filming. It also brought the recording into a wider discussion about mysterious creatures reportedly living in lakes around the world.

For Tabor and Rossi, the television appearance was another unexpected development. They had started with a family movie inspired by an old legend, but now their production footage was attracting interest beyond the film itself. Their discovery also offered something unusual to future investigators: a location, a recording made during a professional production, and a boat whose dimensions were known.

The longer footage could be examined for additional clues, particularly changes in direction, speed, and how the figure appeared at different points in the recording.

Another Look Beneath the Surface

The experience gave the filmmakers an unexpected reason to return to Bulwagga Bay. They knew where the boat had been, when the drone was filming, and approximately where the mysterious figure appeared.

A future visit could involve more cameras, different viewing angles, or equipment designed to see farther beneath the water. An underwater camera could reveal details that an aerial view might miss.

Lake Champlain is enormous, covering hundreds of square miles and reaching depths of more than 400 feet. Much of what happens beneath its surface is never seen by people passing overhead.

An ordinary day of filming had given Tabor something she’d spent years hoping to encounter. And it happened while she was concentrating on an entirely different part of the lake.

Next time, she might want cameras pointing in every direction.

Including straight down.