--- title: This Man's Fish Came With a Crocodile description: The Aussie fisherman suddenly found himself “staring eye to eye with a solid salt water crocodile” a mere 20 inches away. canonical: https://time.com/3757558/fish-saltwater-crocodile-ben-stack-australia/ author: Kevin McSpadden article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-03-25T07:43:30.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:47:50.026Z og:title: This Guy's Fish Came With a Crocodile og:description: "I was staring eye to eye with a solid salt water crocodile" og:url: https://time.com/3757558/fish-saltwater-crocodile-ben-stack-australia/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt231c9580f5eb9120/6987851b3c16393ecd4526a5/11049527_1575663032704192_8139225716630670623_n.png?branch=production&width=341&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 341 og:image:height: 192 og:image:alt: A saltwater crocodile is seen chomping on a fish attached to Ben Stack's line in Cape York, Australia. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Guy's Fish Came With a Crocodile twitter:description: "I was staring eye to eye with a solid salt water crocodile" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt231c9580f5eb9120/6987851b3c16393ecd4526a5/11049527_1575663032704192_8139225716630670623_n.png?branch=production&width=341&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This Guy Caught a Fish That Had Already Been Caught by a Saltwater Crocodile > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. by [Kevin McSpadden](https://time.com/author/kevin-mcspadden/) ## Kevin McSpadden Mar 25, 2015 7:43 AM UTC  A saltwater crocodile is seen chomping on a fish attached to Ben Stack's line in Cape York, Australia. A saltwater crocodile is seen chomping on a fish attached to Ben Stack's line in Cape York, Australia. Ben Stack by [Kevin McSpadden](https://time.com/author/kevin-mcspadden/) ## Kevin McSpadden Mar 25, 2015 7:43 AM UTC Getting a fishing lure stuck on a log can be frustrating, but it is nothing compared to what happened to Australian fisherman Ben Stack, who during a “few seconds that felt like a lifetime,” found himself “staring eye-to-eye with a solid saltwater crocodile.” The Queensland native thought the Blue Threadfin he had nabbed off the Cape York Peninsula had “run under a log.” After reeling in the fish, though, he leaned over the boat and suddenly realized this “log” was in fact a crocodile. “We were face-to-face and no more than 20 inches apart. Fright kicked in, I released the leader and flew backwards into the boat,” he said in a [first-person narrative ](https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cape-York-Guide-to-Explore-Hunt-Fish/1567409590196203)posted Tuesday on Facebook. Incredibly, he had the presence of mind to snap some very impressive pictures.  A Threadlfin fish is seen attached to Ben Stack's line in Cape York Pennisula, Queensland, Australia Ben Stack Stack told TIME that the event, which happened “a little while ago now,” hasn’t stopped him from fishing. “I continue to fish. Things like this do happen in croc waters and I am simply spreading the awareness to be croc savvy,” he said. And the fish? The crocodile won that battle. “I wasn’t disappointed to lose the fish but I don’t like the idea of that croc knowing he can come to a boat for a free meal.” ### See The Best Biology Photos Of The Year  Two Bisons on the Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone National Park, Wyo. Lukas Gawenda  A spider at sunset in Predel, Bulgaria. Krasimir Matarov  Parasitoid wasps building clay pots in Borneo, Brunei. Thomas Endlein  Siblings watering newly planted seedlings in Rizal, The Philippines. Ysabel M Victoriano  A leopard in its natural habitat in Karantaka, India. Nagarjun Ram  A farmer protects his family and animals from mosquitos in Gujarat, India. Dimple Pancholi  A tarsier in its natural habitat in Sulawesi, Indonesia. Wolfgang Weinhardt  A plant takes advantage of the available shelter in a dilapidated house in Kolmanskop, Namibia. Kelsey Green  A female blackbird holding a dried mealworm in her mouth in Lincolnshire, United Kingdom. Billy Clapham  A chick embryo in a hardened eggshell is sustained until full development in Rizal, The Philippines. Robert Cabagnot  An adult female Italian crested newt stationed below the fresh water surface in Piedmont, Italy. Matteo Riccardo Di Nicola  A sea turtle eating a jellyfish in The Maldives. 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