Several
months ago (September 2001), UFO*BC received
a report of a compelling sighting that had
occurred at a lake near Kamloops. In late
October, 2001, UFO*BC directors David
Pengilly, Martin Jasek and Gord Heath, drove
up to Kamloops to meet the witness in his
mid 20s who had made the report. We met him
at a restaurant at the south end of Kamloops
and he guided us up to Jacko Lake, which is
a short drive south of town.
The event occurred
in May 2000. He and his friend went up to
the lake to do some fishing after work. He
guided us to the spot at the northwest end
of the lake where the vehicles park to
launch their boats. The lake is fairly
small, probably less than a kilometer
across. He described the events of the
evening and I recorded his narrative on
video. The following account is mostly his
narration of their experience that night.
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"We started going up this side of
the lake then up the other section just
doing a little "L" for most of the day and
as it got later people started leaving,
going home till we were the last guys here.
We saw the light was on the truck so we went
over and turned it off. The guy who I was
with wanted to do one more turn around the
lake so we got back in and when we got
around to that other point, it was starting
to get very dark. So we decided to just go
along that bank (pointing to the far shore
to the south east of us) and then come home
because it wasn't producing.
There was fish jumping earlier and it was
fairly quiet now. The lake was fairly calm
but there was no action. We hadn't had any
bites. So we started going along that far
end bank so we got towards the center where
those guys are in that red boat there. And
we headed that way. And now it's getting
really dark. It's very hard to see the truck
and I had a white truck at the time. So I
said you can either gun it around the lake
or we can just go slowly across the center.
He said "okay". I was letting him drive and
I was in the front.
So we started coming directly across and I
was facing the hill cause I was in the front
and he was facing the truck (across on the
opposite side of the lake), and as we got
maybe twenty feet from shore I saw this
light up over there where the field is (more
or less behind them) but it was higher up
and at first I thought it was a satellite
and I said to him "Have you ever seen one of
those satellites before?" and he said "No"
and he started turning around and right away
I knew it wasn't a satellite. It was too
low, too big, too everything and I was like,
I couldn't understand what it was at first
and I was like "that's not a satellite". And
he turned around and he's looking at me.
He's got a puzzled look on his face.
And just as we're looking at it, a smaller
light looks like it's come out of those
trees. Tssh.. Tssh.. went up right into the
bottom of that light man, no word of a lie.
And that's when everything went bad. That's
when everything went nasty. Because he
started flipping out. "Did you see that? Did
you see that?" And I was like "Go! Go! Just
gun the motor. Get us outta here. Let's just
go back to the truck. Let's not hang around.
This isn't right. This isn't right." So he
guns the motor.
"You're pointing that way?" asks Martin,
pointing to the far shore.
We're pointing this way to come back, cause
he'd just started his turn and I'm looking
at him. I'm screaming at him. "Lets just
go!" And he's kind of "Uh. Uh." Looking over
his shoulder looking at it. And then finally
I stood up and was like "Lets go!" and he
opened up the motor and he turned around to
look straight across the lake to where he's
driving, the way he's facing. He slacks off
the motor and he's like "Look at the birds!
Look at the birds!" and the whole center of
the lake is covered in thousands of birds.
Ducks, or loons. I don't know. But there
must have been thousands of them. We
couldn't drive through them. And I said
"Just gun it. They'll move. They're birds
for Christ sakes." So he guns it. "Poof!"
Last thing I remember.
Next thing I remember (he points
back to the willows or dogwood shrubs on the
nearby bank by the parking area) is when the
water's deep it comes half way up this
loading (ramp) so all these little trees or
whatever they are. They're in the water. The
next thing I remember, these branches are in
my face and I'm pushing them away and I look
around and I said to him. "You're in the
trees you know. You're ten feet from shore.
Just pull back and go around them." So he
backed it up and he gunned it to shore and
we jumped out. And we're looking back across
now. "What was that? What was going on?" And
its like "Who cares? We're here. We're okay.
Lets just go over and load our shit in the
truck and let's go. Right?" And he's like
"Let's leave it. Let's leave it." And I was
like "No. Let's take it" and two minutes
later he wanted to take it and I wanted to
leave it, and as we're loading up and I
don't know if what we saw is lights over
there (pointing to area above north end of
lake) or what, it's hazy. And he said
something like "Stay nearby. Don't let them
take me" or something else. "Me too. I don't
want to go anywhere either you know." And he
said, "Don't, don't look up cause they'll
know what you're thinking" like he'd seen
too many movies. He said "Don't look up" and
right as he said that, where there is no
stars, it was just dark, this yellow light..
turned on… turned off… perfect circle, size
of a pencil eraser in the sky (he shows size
of pencil eraser between his thumb and
forefinger, and holds his hand at arm's
length), bright yellow, just turned on,
turned off. As soon as that happened he was
bending over and I was standing there. He
was undoing the motor and I was standing
there. I was facing the lake and he was
undoing the motor and as soon as I saw it, I
grabbed his coat and he looked up and he
threw himself back against me. And then it
was off already.
Then it was panic. We threw everything in
the truck and when everything was loaded up
we stopped and we looked. And we just kinda
looked across the lake at these lights and
then the phone rings and then this girl that
I'm seeing she says "How come you're not
home yet? Where are you?" I said, "We're at
the lake. We'll be home. Weird things are
happening. If I don't make it home, I'm at
Jacko Lake." And I hung up.
And I was like "Why is she calling?" and I
looked at the clock. It was a quarter to
eleven. So I don't know. It's weird. There
was no feathers or anything on the boat. I
don't remember from where we were thirty
feet from that side of the lake to when we
got here.
"That's the only time you saw the birds?"
asks Dave.
Just when I said "Gun it. They'll move." I
don't remember anything until I woke up and
I was over there in the trees.
"When you looked back there was no birds?"
Dave asks.
No, but the funny thing was when we were
fishing we saw one eagle and maybe one loon.
There was nothing. How can you fill a lake
with birds unless you put in an order for
every one in BC?
"So how closely spaced were they?" asks
Martin.
They were packed. They were packed. You
could step on them back to back if you could
walk on them. It's weird. First thing I
remember was like Hitchcock, "The Birds"
because there was so many.
When we loaded up the truck, it was like
"Lets have one quick look. Look one more
time." And we looked across there (back to
other side of lake) and it looked like there
was one little light. It looked like a star.
And it had other stars around it. And they
would move. There would be one, sitting
there. Then it would move.. Shoop and stop.
And one looked like it was to come in off
the bottom of the star and then it just
kinda did a little semi-circle. It was like
they were playing. It was like they were
just screwing around. "Okay, we didn't
expect guys to be out on this lake fishing
and they saw us so lets really throw them
for a screw." But it was nasty.
I went home that night and I was living
alone. I talked to someone on the phone
until about four AM and the sun started
coming up.
When you see something like that you think
that everything someone has told you your
whole life is bullshit.
I brushed my teeth. I made a beeline for
bed. Door closed. Light off. And on the
phone constantly, "I don't care how tired
you are. You're not hanging up on me." And
the next day, I have Psoriasis, and its
flared right up. It was almost gone and it
was back. It was all nerves.
I told my doctor too and he's like "I don't
know if you should tell other people about
it. Stuff like that."
Was he supportive? asks Martin.
Yeah. He says "I can't say what you saw but
he says I wish I could have seen it because
most people don't get that chance." And I
thought about going to a hypnotist to
remember, just even the birds, how we got
across the lake. But I looked up in the
Yellow Pages and it says
"Hypnotist/Entertainment". I'm not going to
be some one's puppet. I'm not going to be
some one's sideshow.
Was it overcast or was there a moon out?
Gord asks.
No. It was a clear night.
Did you see the moon?
I don't remember seeing the moon. You could
see lots of stars. I drove back to town. I
probably got there in eight or ten minutes.
No word of a lie man. My truck was going 120
the whole way. And when I came into town,
you see lights down in the valley and I'd
never driven there at night before, and it
was like "Oh. More lights." Then I realized
and it was like "Okay. That's all right."
And he just sat there in the seat. And this
guy, he's a pretty brave guy and he's like
"We never saw that. We never saw it." And I
was like "We saw it." And he was like "We
never saw nothing. No. It was something
else. No. We couldn't have." All the way
(back to Kamloops) And now, I don't talk to
this guy anymore.
And you didn't hear any sounds?
No sounds. I don't remember hearing the
birds. I'm sure they were loons. I don't
remember. It's like everything went hazy.
And loons are pretty noisy.
Well there's not that many loons around here
to fill a lake. Needless to say, I don't
fish after dark anymore."
--- End of Witness narrative
---
I think all of us who met the
young man thought that his narration seemed
a truthful account of an exceptionally vivid
and emotional event. The missing time that
he and his friend experienced, occurs in
many UFO incidents. Often, hypnotic
regression is a useful tool for uncovering
memories that indicate the possible events
that transpired in the missing time. Missing
time is sometimes later associated with
memories of close encounters with
extra-terrestrial beings in their vehicles.
We are not aware of any similar event
involving a sudden appearance of a mass of
birds, as occurred in this event. But some
close encounters involve other mysterious
sightings of a paranormal nature.
He assured us they had not had any beer and
were not impaired in any way. While there
were a few parts of his account that
produced a few nervous chuckles from us, he
told us that "Its only funny months later.
It's still not funny."
I think it is unfortunate that those who
experience emotional trauma or bewilderment
after UFO sightings and encounters have
difficulty finding professional assistance
to help them deal with their unanswered
questions about the events they experience.
This is particularly true in areas away from
large cities where these events often occur.
Until we have an environment that accepts
the validity of this phenomena for
scientific study, and until our mass media
and governments are willing to deal with
these issues in a serious manner, we will
continue to have more and more people who
feel they must hide their experiences from
the authorities who provide no support or
assistance in these manners.
Our society as a whole is cheated by our
government's inability to admit that there
is something more behind this phenomena,
than hoaxes, delusions and misidentified
conventional phenomena. We cannot expect
human civilization to ever be able to
venture beyond our home planet, if we are
afraid to admit that other civilizations
from other planets may have technological
capabilities that far exceed our own.
**********************************
2nd Witness Confirms Incident 
In May 2021 UFO*BC was contacted by the second
witness that had also been fishing on Jacko Lake
in May 2000. He confirmed his friend's story. Here
is his account.
----------------------
May,
2000 "Jacko Lake incident" was true - I
was the other guy with Al (Last Name removed).
To this
day I still think about it and there was a
huge amount of time that disappeared that
night before we found ourselves floating in
the willows. I forgot until I re read it about
the little lights zooming from and around and
back to the bigger circle of lights. I also
remember looking back while loading and it was
like a front of of a locomotive but in an
indescribably huge scale and I could feel
something/s looking right into my eyes from
it. I’m actually happy it happened and wish it
would again. I welcome the uncommon
occurrences this life has to offer.
Tell you
the truth it was just an ordinary evening
fishing session, no booze and we didn’t do
drugs - all of a sudden it was pretty dark,
then we saw what we knew was UFO and then we
tried getting back to shore and hours went by,
we were floating in trees and it was like I
was coming out of a sleep/dream- with tree
branches everywhere and finally got engine
started and out of the trees and got back to
boat launch- everything is as what Al
discussed with you guys plus what I saw
(locomotive in sky) I also felt I saw it
watching me walk into my basement apartment
when Al dropped me off.
It was a
true situation and I believe in my gut we
probably got to go for a ride or were touched
by something.
Am so
glad this happened and this was first time I
ever googled Jacko Lake because I wanted to
know what was the biggest fish caught in the
lake as I lost a huge one before this event
and think about that too - then I saw your
site pop up.
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