Caught on cam: Fisherman reels in sixgill shark off Nanaimo, B.C.

Nanaimo -

A Nanaimo fisherman has a wild tale to tell – but unlike most big fish stories – he’s got the video to back it up.

Roy Ban was fishing for ling cod near Entrance Island in Nanaimo last week.

He was there with his fiancé and infant child when he felt a tug on his line.

"I thought it was a really big ling cod, honestly," Ban told CTV News on Monday. "It took me about 15 to 20 minutes to bring it up the first time."

The fisherman says he wasn't sure it was a shark at first.

"I had a glimpse of it – and saying that to my fiancé, I asked if she saw that, and she said she saw that, because it went right back down right away," he said.

"I fought it for another 15 to 20 minutes and it finally surfaced," said Ban.

Later, he says a relative confirmed the large fish was actually a sixgill shark.

“I looked at my fiancé, I looked at her height, she’s like five feet, and then I realize – I look at the shark at the same time and it’s like, I’m guessing five or six feet,” said Ban.

"Once in a lifetime experience I guess... For sure I don’t think it’ll happen again, considering I snagged it by accident," he said.

Bann says he cut the line following their encounter and the shark swam away.

According to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans the sixgill is a deep-water shark, commonly found in B.C. waters at depths between 200 and 2000 meters.