Rods or "skyfish" are a quirk of the way cameras work, but that doesn't stop people from continuing to believe that they are aliens, unknown flying animals, time travelers, or more.  The classic rod is a streak across a video camera frame, often with what appears to be an undulating single or double fin propelling it, not unlike the fin on the sides of a cuttlefish.

Every possible credible source has debunked the myth of "rods," and yet the idea persists in cryptozoology circles and in the public's consciousness.  Even the MonsterQuest episode devoted to rods admitted at the end that they were clearly an artifact of the way cameras work, after they were able to successfully replicate the appearance of a rod under near-laboratory testing.  But of course, you had to watch the first 40 minutes of the episode, chock full of experts talking about the nature of rods, before you got to that point!

It is only in the very last minutes of the episode that the MonsterQuest crew is able to reproduce the rods exactly.  And to confirm, through the use of a high speed camera focused on the exact same spot, that the "rod" was in fact a very fast moving moth.  Both the high speed camera and the regular camera were focused on a digital time clock, so that their readouts could be synched.  There is no question that the "rod" captured by MonsterQuest was in fact a moth.  And yet people still doubt the evidence!

One argument that rod believers use is that the rod appears to move at speeds far faster than what an ordinary moth or katydid is capable of.  Several pieces of footage show rods moving at what rod researchers calculate is several hundred miles per hour.  According to the rod believers, this explains why you and I don't see rods - they are moving too fast for us to notice.  

There are two problems with this theory.  The first is obvious: I am fairly certain that people would notice something zooming past their head at several hundred miles per hour.  After all, that is similar to the speed of a bullet, and one does hear the "zing" of a bullet flying past, as it disrupts the air in its quick passage.

The second problem is that it is completely impossible to determine the speed of the object from the video tape.  Speed is a function of distance + time.  We know the time (say 2 seconds to traverse the video camera's field).  But we cannot know the distance.  

It is impossible to determine whether you're seeing a small thing close to the camera lens, or a large thing far away from the lens.  A small thing close to the lens will appear to move much more quickly than a large thing farther away.  Think of the difference, for example, between the apparent speed of an airplane across the sky, versus that of a moth fluttering across your field of vision.

Exactly!

Sadly, there are still people who make a living from trying to propagate belief in these "creatures."  Self-styled "rod researchers" like Jose Escamilla should be given the pity they deserve - but certainly not belief. And definitely not your money!