Amateur angler Remi Subair got more than he bargained for when he went fishing off South Shore on Saturday evening.

For the 35-year-old electrician had hoped to catch some rockfish for the dinner table — and ended up landing a 5ft reef shark.

Mr Subair, from Smith’s, said he suspected large ocean predators were in the area off Spittal Pond after he had previously lost several 125lb fishing lines. As a result, on Saturday he decided to use a hand line “that was more like rope” — and after a ten-minute struggle was rewarded with his monster catch.

“I’ve had a few experiences where I’ve had my line broken and so I knew there were some pretty huge fish coming in close to the shore in that area,” Mr Subair said.

“I knew I had something big on the line straight away — it pulled and pulled really good.”

A fellow fisherman witnessed the struggle and was able to help Mr Subair wrestle the shark ashore.

“I had to let the line go twice before I was able to get it onto the rocks — I guess it just tired itself out,” Mr Subair said.

“Once we got it on the rocks it was slipping around for a while and I realised I had to make a quick decision. I thought it could probably only survive out of the water for maybe ten minutes and I really didn’t know what to do with it.”

Mr Subair eventually decided to return the shark to its home, picking it up by the tail and dorsal fin before easing it into the water.

“It was a lot heaver than it looked, which surprised me, and still had a lot of energy” he said.

“She swam away fairly quickly but didn’t seem to have been harmed by being caught.

“The question everyone has been asking me is, why I chose to put her back. Well, I don’t eat shark hash and so I didn’t want to kill such a large animal for no apparent reason. I’m happy with the decision I made.”