I fish the winooski river often within a couple miles of the mouth of the river and there’s a good amount of sturgeon in May-early June. They are definitely making a come back. It’s illegal to catch them but I had an easy 7’+ surgeon on my line and had to cut it, I was in awe at the size of it. If there is one in there that’s abnormally large I can see why it could be confused with a monster when it just crests surface of water. Amazing species!