Fishermen flocking to Otay Lakes are discovering there is more than just fish in the water. The area just opened last week, but instead of talking about fishing, people have something else on their minds, 10News reported. Since June 2005, a creature dubbed "Otayzilla" has been lurking in and around the water. The mystery monster has been spotted at several places around the lake, which is located just south of Otay Lakes Road in Otay Mesa. "I was actually coming up on a boat at the end of Otay arm," said Jose Gutierrez, a fisherman. "There have been other fisherman who have seen it." It's not quite as scary as Godzilla, but Otayzilla is very real, according to 10News. "I know one fisherman, about a week ago, he said he thought it was an alligator," said Gutierrez. Officials say Otayzilla is not an alligator, but a monitor lizard.

A lot of people haven't seen Otayzilla, but most have heard about it. Several fishermen told 10News they had never seen Otayzilla. Mark Gartland is actually looking forward to seeing the creature. "I hope to see him. I'd like to be able to spot him," Gartland told 10News. Rick Sturm is a herpetoculturist and knows his reptiles, according to 10News. "It does look like a Nile monitor," Sturm said about Otayzilla.

View: Full Article | Source: 10News

Otayzilla was a nile monitor lizard and was captured at the chulavista olympic training center by me-one of the security personel there (the O.T.C. is on the shore of lake otay) At the time we kept mum about it as the O.T.C. did not want any kind of publicity for other reasons. (Do a search for news about atheletes who were there at the time and you may find out why- I can't say more than that) It was about 4ft long and was taken home by the grounds keeper who gave it a friend of his as he did not think he would be able to keep it when it reached its full size of 6 to 7ft. Otay was caught in the track and field area of the O.T.C. and had cleared the wood rats out of a nest near the hole where it was captured as well as many of the rabbits and a few birds in the area. It had been seen several times around the facility before its capture. We have heard rumors of additional sitings after the capture so perhaps there is more than one? I still have photos taken of the animal while our grounds keeper held otay for the camera. he was a little nervous about holding such a large animal with such big claws but otay didn't seem to mind being held. Note: the first time i saw the animal was outside the facility on wueste road as 3 fishermen tried unsucessfully to capture it. It ran into the 150 acre facility and disappeared. I called it otayzilla then and the name sort of stuck. Our grounds keeper and I were very suprised to hear and see the name appear on san diego ch 10 (the grounds keeper told me about it) then on the web and even on CNN. Who'd have thought? my co workers didn't believe me when I first reported otayzilla but they believe me now- and I got the pics to prove it.