Report 48359: Hunter sees black creature dive into the Sioux River near Washburn

I was telling a long-time friend about a BF sighting a common friend of ours had related to me. He said, "You know, I saw something several years ago." He went on to say he was fishing on the Sioux River near Big Rock in Bayfield County as he had for nearly 20 years. He was upstream where the River crosses Big Rock Road. He was walking along the bank on the way back, focusing on his footing as he had chest waders on carried his rod. He looked up as a black animal, 3-4 feet tall, on the next bend in the river, about 60-70 feet ahead of him, seemed to do at the same time. He watched as it immediately "launched" itself away from him "arms outstretched" and a "blur" it moved so fast, "cut into the water at least 10 feet into the river and made a splash" then disappeared under the water. He watched and waited at least 3 minutes for it to surface but it never did. He thought about going to the sandbar it was originally on to check for tracks but would have had to backtrack several bends in the river, cross, then "bushwhack" all the way on the opposite side. He was already sweating and decided to just walk on out to the car. He said, "I can just kick myself for not going back to check."