Gold Coast fisherman reels in massive barramundi after fighting off a bull shark in Nerang River

A man has revealed how he caught a massive barramundi more than a metre long. 

Ryan Selvey, 21, was fishing along the Nerang River near Bond University in the Gold Coast when he caught the fish. 

After he reeled it in and measured it, Mr Selvey was stunned to discover it was 129 centimetres long.

He also revealed how he brifely fought off a bullshark before catching the barramundi. 

Initially, Mr Selvey thought that there were two huge ‘barra’, before realising the shark was trying unsuccessfully to eat it. 

‘That’s when I realised there was a metre shark roughing it up, trying to bite it,’ Mr Selvey told 4BC’s Neil Breen.

‘The barra was quite a bit bigger than the shark and the shark couldn’t get a good bite on it.

‘The shark actually just boosted away from the barra.’

The fisherman took a photo of the giant fish before releasing it again. 

According to Fisheries Queensland, the biggest barramundi ever caught was 135cm long. 

Denis Harrold was fishing from a kayak at Lake Monduran, near Bundaberg in December 2010, when he caught the 44.64 kg fish.

Initially, Mr Selvey thought that there were two huge ‘barra’, before realising the shark was trying unsuccessfully to eat it

However, in 2019, a teenager claimed to have landed an even bigger one after the monster fish dragged his jetski sideways in a Queensland dam.

Jesse Bradford and his friend Dylan Cosgrove, both 19, wrestled the beast, which was already dead, out of Kinchant Dam.

 The fish was so big the teens had to ‘lasso it like an animal’ to haul it from the water.

The fish weighed around 55kg and was 140cm long, it was also tagged and when the boys rang it in they discovered it had last been measured at 116cm in 2014.