KEY POINTS:
Every fisherman has a tale about the one that got away, but Luke Potts and Andrew MacDonald have a better excuse than most.
The spearfishers had a 17kg kingfish "obliterated" by a 2m bronze whaler as they carried their prized catch from the water at Tawharanui, north of Auckland.
"I was swimming towards the beach and was climbing up on to the rocks when I saw two sharks swimming up to me," said Potts. "One jumped up and bit off half the fish - it totally obliterated it.
"There were probably about four of them swimming around me. It was a close call."
MacDonald, 20, who was filming Potts as the sharks swam by, said the sharks were circling them before he climbed from the water.
He snapped pictures of the shredded fish after the attack.
"They were circling around us and hassling us but I don't think they were interested in eating us," said MacDonald. "They were just checking out the fish and being a bit nosy. We go there a lot to spearfish and see bronze whalers all the time.
"We're not really scared of them but you don't want to hang around for too long to find out what could happen."
The pair had been at the same spot a couple of days before and saw a couple of bronze whalers that were "easily" longer than 2m.
The attack has not deterred the keen fishermen, who returned to the beach on Friday.
They plan on filming the sharks and putting the footage on YouTube and their spearfishing website, www.projectlocal.co.nz. "We want to get more of them on film and catch a few more kingfish," said Potts.
"We're not scared of them, they're just doing their thing and aren't known for being an aggressive shark. "
