Monster 5m great white circles fisherman’s boat off Tweed Coast

A MONSTER great white is lurking off the Coast of Northern NSW and these fishermen have the footage to prove it.

TWO offshore fisherman received the shock of their lives when a monster five-metre great white shark began chewing on their small plastic boat near Pottsville on Wednesday.

But instead of racing for safety, the men, Daniel Fleming and James Tate, whipped out their camera and gave the shark, which was longer than their boat, a feed of tuna.

GALLERY: GREAT WHITE CIRCLES BOAT AT POTTSVILLE

They even leant over the side to deliver a slap on the head to the animal to discourage it from biting the boat.

A 5m Great White Shark circling a fishing boat off the Tweed Coast.

The shark began circling the 4.5m Polycraft half-cabin boat about 2:30pm as they were fishing about 4km off the coast.

Mr Fleming said he first saw a pod of dolphins but then the shark came out of nowhere.

“I saw one with a massive fin and said, ‘That’s not a dolphin’,” he said.

“Then he came up to the back of the boat and started having a go at the transducer and bait

“When it first came up it was a bit daunting — it was a shark the same size as the boat and it pushed the boat around a couple of times.”

The men then turned the engine off and started drifting along, with the shark following the boat for about two hours.

A 5m Great White Shark circling a fishing boat off the Tweed Coast.

The Kingscliff resident said he had other friends fishing nearby in a 4.8m aluminium boat and gave them a call to come over and check the shark out.

“After it pushed the boat around a couple of times it wasn’t too aggressive, so we started to relax and feed it,” he said.

“We were giving it tuna and it was having a good old feed.

“It loved it.”

When the shark began biting the live bait box at the back of the boat, Mr Fleming told Mr Tate to slap the animal to get it to stop.

A 5m Great White Shark circling a fishing boat off the Tweed Coast.

“It worked and he went off,” Mr Fleming said.

Mr Tate said the shark was enjoying itself and ‘didn't want to go away’.

“I was scared of it at the start as it was just so big but as time went on we sort of got used to it,” he said.

The Hastings Point resident said they had never fished in that spot before and were about to jump into the water to check if they were in the right place when the shark appeared.

“You don’t expect to go out fishing and see something like that — I guess it’s pretty rare,” Mr Tate said.

A 5m Great White Shark circling a fishing boat off the Tweed Coast.

Shannon Ryan, who was on the second boat, said it was a good experience to see a great white up close.

“We were putting our hands in the water to film it — you could just tell it wasn’t going to bite your hands,” he said.

“We’ve all been dreaming of something like this our whole lives.

“I’ve always wanted to see one in real life that’s not hanging off my leg.”