A nine-year-old boy has gone viral on TikTok after catching a huge shark while out fishing.
Xandré de Beer was fishing with dad Xander, 35, at Dana Bay in Western Cape, South Africa, when he scored the impressive catch.
The budding fisher had a 2.5-hour tussle with the beast after hooking it, finally bringing it out of the ocean to reveal its size – with the bronze whaler shark weighing 149kg (23st 4lbs).
“At first I didn’t want him to target such a large shark as I didn’t think he was physically capable yet, but he persisted that he wants to give it a try,” Xander, who has his own fishing guide and runs a charter company, told NeedToKnow.online.
“I’ve told him in the past if he hooks a large fish that he needs to bring it in on his own and that he cannot hand the rod over to me to help as these sharks are extremely strong fighters and don’t give up easily.
“The only assistance I gave him is some advice during the tussle as how to hold his body position to use his body weight to counter the strong bursts of the shark.
“He stayed focused and with some words of advice from me he managed to conserve enough energy to endure the 2.5 hour tussle and finally landed a 149kg specimen.
“Finally he was completely tired, but even more satisfied with his catch!”
After catching the shark, the duo measure and tag them before safely releasing them. The tag provides valuable information of their growth and movements.
Amazingly, this wasn’t the first shark the child had caught, as he has previously hooked ragged tooth sharks – though this species is known to be less strong than the bronze whaler.
On the day of his biggest catch yet, Xandré had caught an 80kg shark which he landed within 40 minutes, before setting his sights on the larger one.
Xander, who shares his fishing exploits on his YouTube channel, Zoo Look Fishing, said: “Xandré started to go fishing with me since he was still in his diapers and caught his first little fish before he was two.
“So he grew up with fishing but has been very actively fishing with me since he was three years and a bit.
“He has caught other 100kg sharks, but ragged tooth sharks and they are not nearly as strong as these bronze whalers.
“Afterwards he told me he could see why I didn’t want him to try and catch one because you cannot compare the ragged tooth sharks he has caught before with the bronze whalers.”
Xander shared a clip of his son’s impressive catch on TikTok, where the post went viral being viewed nearly 90,000 times and racking up more than 3,000 likes.
One user commented: “So much respect for that boy his really coming into his own with his fishing…. going to go far in the sport. Keep up the good work.”
“This is so awesome, I can only imagine the stories he tells his friends. Good job lil man,” another viewer said.
Someone else added: “Wow this is insane.”
“This is way too cool!!!” agreed one person.
Another user said: “Wow!!! But NOPE!”
“Real life animal crossing,” joked another fan.
