ANGLERS along the River Cherwell may need a bigger boat after this beast from the deep was found near Old Marston in Oxford.

Farmers Charlie Gee and Peter Money discovered the huge pike skull on the banks opposite the Victoria Arms pub.

They had been checking their fences when they came across the skull – which could be from the biggest pike ever in the UK – in the grass.

Mr Gee, 49, who runs Medley Manor Farm off Botley Road, said: “Peter said he had seen something in the grass that I hadn’t so we stopped and picked it up.

“It was massive and it looked almost like a crocodile’s head to me. I knew it had to be a pike but it doesn’t look like one that I have ever seen before.

“We took it home because it was such an amazing thing. We have not made up our minds what to do with it yet.”

The skull, found about a month ago, is 9ins wide and has around 700 teeth, some an inch long.

It is thought it was about 20 years old and probably weighed over 50lbs.

The current pike record stands at 46lb for a specimen caught near Scarborough in March last year.

Mr Money, 32, said: “I live on the river and I haven’t seen anything like this before.”

Mr Money took the skull to Andrew Crisp, secretary of the North Oxford Angling Society, for his opinion.

He said: “I’m no pike expert but this could have weighed at least 40lbs when alive, probably more.”