Australian fisherman battle cheeky, 6-foot (2-meter) long saltwater crocodile to keep shark

Australia: Man vs. marauding crocodile over shark

SYDNEY — A group of Australian mates on an annual fishing holiday was not going to let anything come between them and their prize catch — not even a marauding crocodile.

The friends landed a small shark on a beach recently in the tropical north of Australia — also home to wild saltwater crocodiles known to attack humans.

As they dragged the shark ashore with the help of a hooked pole, a croc about 6-feet (2-meters) long emerged from the water, ran up the beach to the flailing shark, and opened its jaws menacingly.

Unperturbed, the fisherman holding the hook banged it down on the head of the crocodile, which turned tail and scrambled quickly back into the water.

The incident was captured on video and posted on YouTube, where it gained a popular following and attention from Australian media.

“He was full on,” Bob Callan, one of the anglers told Nine Network television Friday, describing the croc’s lunge. “He was going for that shark right or wrong, then it was — bang — hit him on the snout and away he went.”

After dispatching the reptile, the video shows the anglers lined up behind the shark on the beach for photos — with their backs to the water. One casts a nervous eye over his shoulder, and another jumps as his neighbor gives him a sly pinch on the leg.

Callan said the friends, from the New South Wales town of Inverell, travel to the north every year for a fishing holiday, and the shark — like all the fish they catch — was released back into the wild.