Angler reports encounter with crocodile in Hampshire lake

An angler in Hampshire has claimed he "clearly" saw a two-foot crocodile lurking in the lake he was fishing in. Alan Pragnell, 64, was fishing from the banks of a lake near Ringwood when the crocodile, which he said was around 2ft in length, grabbed hold of the fish he was reeling in. When it let go, the animal was sitting right in front of him.

“I was catching some small roach and something attached itself to the line. As I reeled in the fish, something grabbed it on the way. Normally when this happens it is a pike. There was a little bit of resistance. It let go as it got to the edge and I saw it sat there in the water.” Mr Pragnel was sitting on a raised fishing chair, in around 1ft of water. The creature was on the surface, around 6in from his feet.



It was around 10am in the morning and he is no doubt what he was looking at. “It was quite clear enough. It was a matter of inches away, just lying there. It was a crocodile. It was about two foot long. I was looking at it in disbelief. It had four legs and a tail. It was there for about ten seconds and then sunk down into the depths. I know pike. I know what I saw.”

The 10oz roach he had reeled in, meanwhile, was dead, apparently shredded by the mysterious creature, with several deep parallel slashes down either side. “It looked like someone had taken a Stanley knife to it. A pike doesn’t do that,” Mr Pragnell added. Mr Pragnell is unwilling to identify the lake concerned, for fear of attracting large groups in search of the creature.