While fishing in a river, man accidentally catches crocodile; video goes viral

The video of a man accidentally reeling in a giant crocodile while fishing in the Victoria river in Australia has gone viral on social media.

The nearly two-and-a-half-minute clip, which was posted by Rod and Rifle Tackleworld Katherine on Facebook, has been shared more than 12k times. Throughout the video, the man, identified as Trent de With, is seen struggling to pull back his line with the lure from the crocodile. Trent de With had captioned the video, “Here we were just trolling along with a classic 200 and this fella decides he wants to have a crack at it. Managed to get the lure back! Although it doesn’t track as straight as it use to.” Mentioning that hooking reptiles is not common in the area, de With informed a news agency, “We were on the Victoria River, about three hours to the west of Katherine – a very well known fishing spot for people in Katherine. You can accidentally hook them (reptiles), this one seemed like he actually tried to eat it. You just fight it till the line breaks or the hooks let go. That rod and reel are good quality stuff, which makes all the difference especially when you hook a big barra you don’t won’t your gear to fail.”

The viral video has garnered over 1.5 million views on Facebook. Several users seemed impressed with de With’s tools, which were able to withstand the reptile’s tugging for so long. “That would have been a new rod for me,” a user wrote. “The line not snapping is impressive,” another person said.