Last Saturday, father and son Glenn and Nicholas Brasen took off on one of their regular fishing trips off the NSW north coastal town of Kingscliff.
But this trip was anything but regular. Nicholas said he managed to hook a humpback whale.
"We weren't very far offshore but there were a couple of whales sort of frolicking around on top of the water, about 150 metres from us," father Glen Brasen told SBS World News.
"They disappeared, they went under, and we said 'where'd the whales go?' We didn't know where they went."
Moments later, one of the whales surfaced at the back of the boat, and Nicholas said he realised it was attached to his fishing rod.
"It obviously got its side fin or something hooked on the line," said Mr Brasen.
"I broke the line straight away, as soon as I realised it was on the whale. It was only a light line; it broke like cotton."
He said the whale didn't seem bothered by what happened, and nor was his son.
"He was very excited, of course.
"It seemed like a friendly situation, it didn’t seem hostile. They're just so massive, you know. It leaves such an impression on you.”
