Eric Vaughan, 13, holds his prize catch. Courtesy photo.

Two adolescents out for a fishing trip on May 25, 2012, Friday, on Stevens Pond, near Manchester, New Hampshire, captured a reptilian surprise.

Eric Vaughan and Jesse Philbin, both 13-year-old seventh-graders at McLaughlin Middle School, caught a young, 2.5-foot crocodilian. The boys think it is an alligator.

“We thought it was just going to be a regular day of fishing,” Vaughan told local media. “And we hooked a gator. It was awesome.”

Vaughan said the two sighted the gator as soon as they arrived at the pond Friday afternoon. They twice tried to catch it, but it swam away. The third try got him, Vaughan said. The boys dangled a hook in front of the alligators snout.

“He took it and bit down and it hooked him,” Vaughan said.

It immediately tried to bite them.

“It hissed at us and was making these noises like a bullfrog makes,” Philbin said.

(See video here.)

The reptile was turned over to city animal control officers, police Lt. Michael Hurley said.

Hurley said officers had been trying to catch the animal before it grew larger and more dangerous. Hurley said the alligator will be turned over to a group that specializes in rescuing reptiles.

(Thanks to Stacy Levasseur, ICM State Representative for NH, for the newstip.)