Bow-Nessie, England's Lake Monster, with photos and video

I had a feeling today was going to be a good day for paranormal news stories making the front page.

Pickles/Harrington Bow-Nessie Sighting 2011

I didn't have to dig for today's cryptid sighting. Fresh from the press, couple Tom Pickles and Sarah Harrington spotted what they called an "enormous snake" last Friday February 11th 2001, while kayaking on England's largest lake, Lake Windemere. It may not be the Scottish Loch Ness monster, but her English counterpart is close enough with sightings occurring eight times in the past five years.

"It was petrifying and we paddled back to the shore straight away. At first I thought it was a dog and then saw it was much bigger and moving really quickly at about 10 mph," stated 24 year old Pickles. "Each hump was moving in a rippling motion and it was swimming fast. Its skin was like a seal's but its shape was completely abnormal—it's not like any animal I've ever seen before."

Bow-Nessie or Wells Catfish?

Sojourning with his wife, Journalism professor Steve Burnip started the recent string of "Bow-Nessie" sightings on the lake back in 2006 reporting they had seen a "giant eel" somewhere between 15-20 feet long with two humps. Ian Winfield, a fish ecologist for the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology at Lancaster University, believes this couple (and perhaps the others) could have seen a catfish, as they have been introduced to a lot of English lakes for angling. “The Wells catfish comes from mainland Europe and can grow to about 500cm and weigh up to 306kg and there have been numerous records of catfish washing up dead in Cumbrian lakes,” said Mr Winfield.

Mr. Burnip says of the most recent picture being called the clearest Bow-Nessie photo ever taken: “I know what I saw and it shocked me, it had three humps and it’s uncanny the likeness between this and what I saw five years ago.”

Here's an intriguing video, where a strange V-shaped ripple affects the lake surface seemingly out of no where during filming of LAKES TV.