Bizarre footage of monster fish choked on smaller fish

A shocked fisherman filmed a monstrous 18-year-old flathead fish choking to death on another smaller fish after it attempted to devour its prey whole.

Michael Pool stumbled upon the unbelievable sight earlier this month after embarking on his usual morning walk along the water in his hometown of Burrill Lake, New South Wales, Australia.

The 63-year-old first spotted the colossal metre-long, 10kg flathead in the water from a distance – but it was only when he ventured closer that he realised the fish had choked on a small bream.

“I was walking my dogs at sunrise along the water as usual and I saw the flathead from a distance,” Michael said.

“But as I got closer I noticed the other fish sticking out of its mouth. I was absolutely gob-smacked.”

The giant fish had tried to eat a smaller one. Photo: Caters News
The giant fish had tried to eat a smaller one. Photo: Caters News

He tried to release the small fish from the flathead’s enormous jaws but Michael said the bream was ‘jammed too far’ and was stuck inside the flathead’s mouth, making it ‘impossible’ to dislodge from its ‘shark-like’ teeth.

“The fish was a big female breeder and I’d seen her many times. She would be about 18 years old,” he said.

“It’s rare to see a flathead fish so close to shore. She must have swum up to the shallows during the night and chased the bream.

“It looks like she charged at the bream full force to eat it, but it was just too big for her throat and it became stuck.

“She would have started choking on it and just suffocated to death.

“It’s like if a human tried to jam a whole apple down their throat.”

Source: Giphy
Source: Giphy

Retired engineer Michael said he had never seen anything so unusual in his 50 years of fishing on the South Coast.

The bizarre footage of the two interlocked dead fish has racked up thousands of likes and shares online.

Many people were ‘feeling sorry’ for the hungry flathead’s fatal mistake which caused it to suffocate.

“When I went back down a few hours later the birds had got to it and there was just her skeleton left,” Michael, who owns a homestay in Burrill Lake, said.

“I did feel sorry for her. Her eyes were just too big for her stomach.

“It isn’t a very nice way to go. But I guess that’s nature. I felt quite lucky to see it.”

With additional reporting by Caters News.

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