TO the untrained eye, it may look like not much more than a ripple in the water, but people living in a Lake District town are convinced it could be the North's own Nessie.

Photographer Linden Adams saw something beneath the surface of Windermere and immediately reached for his camera.

He claims to have captured the first photograph of Windie, or the Bowness Monster, a serpent-like creature long rumoured to have taken up residence in England's biggest lake.

"The water was unbelievably peaceful and then this huge thing appeared, diving and thrashing around," said 35-year-old Mr Adams, a father-of-two from Bowness-on-Windermere.

"It dwarfed everything. It was jaw-dropping."

Mr Adams and his wife, Louise, were taking photos from a hillside nearby when a splash in the water caught their eye.

"I snatched the binoculars from my wife and gasped when I got a better look," said Mr Adams.

"I could see this huge dark thing moving in the water.

"I didn't know what it was but it had a head like a labrador dog, only much, much bigger. I know the lake well and this was no freak wave.

"I was a sceptic before but this has really opened my mind to what might be in the lake."

Last September, experts in the supernatural from The Centre for Fortean Zoology visited the lake after a tourist claimed to have spotted a 20ft creature swimming in the water.

Dr Charles Paxton, a marine biologist at the University of St Andrews and an expert in the discovery of new sea creatures, has studied the pictures.

He said: "What the photograph shows is very intriguing and I wouldn't rule out any possibilities. New species of water creatures are still being discovered. I will be going to Lake Windermere very soon and will be spending some time trying to find any new creatures.

"But until someone brings this creature onto dry land in a net, we won't have proof."