Why 2011 was a bumper year to see Nessie: THREE monster hunters compete for £1,000 prize for Best Sighting

Why 2011 was a bumper year to see Nessie: THREE monster hunters compete for £1,000 prize for Best Sighting - The last recorded sighting was in 2002, when a postman captured video footage of something moving deep in the water.

But sightings were thin on the ground until May last year, when she was caught on camera by holidaymakers and spotted again in June and September.

Now one of the three Loch Ness Monster hunters will win the £1,000 Best Nessie Sighting of the Year prize, unclaimed for a decade.

Peekaboo: William and Joan Jobes, of Ayrshire, were walking along the Abbey footpath in Fort Augustus when they spotted what appeared to be a head bobbing above the water 200 to 300 yards from the shore

In May, holidaymakers William and Joan Jobes spotted what appeared to be a head bobbing above the water 200 to 300 yards from the shore as they walked along the Abbey footpath in Fort Augustus, Inverness-shire.

Mr Jobes, of Ayrshire, managed to take a single picture before the ‘head’ disappeared beneath the surface.

However, to his delight a dark, hump-like shape broke the waves and he was able to take more photographs.

The following month, Jan and Simon Hargreaves spotted a creature while taking a break from the shop and cafe they run in the village of Foyers, by Loch Ness.

The couple said they saw something black with a long neck disappear underwater and then surface again.

It was around for four to five minutes but they did not manage to take a photograph.

In September, fish farm worker Jon Rowe captured a large, dark shape in the water while photographing a rainbow.

The 31-year-old, of Lewiston, Inverness-shire, then spotted two unexplained ‘Nessie-like’ humps appearing from below the surface of the water.

Could this be Nessie? Jon Rowe, a fish farm worker from Lewiston, photographed a large, dark shape in the water while photographing a rainbow

The Official Loch Ness Monster Fan Club has classed 89 sightings as ‘good’ since 1996 but the prize has not been awarded since 2002, when it went to Glasgow postal worker Bobbie Pollock.

He captured video footage of something moving in the water while walking with his family in the hills above Invermoriston Bay.

Mr Pollock described the section out of the water as ‘quite tall and narrow like a pole’ and moving slowly towards Fort Augustus against the wind and waves.

Fan club president Gary Campbell said: ‘In the past seven years there have been very few sightings.

‘Nessie, it seems, has been in the wilderness but there were at least three sightings last year – two have been photographed and the third sounds plausible.’

Bookmaker William Hill will announce the winner of the Best Nessie Sighting prize later this year. ( dailymail.co.uk )