A fisherman in New Zealand has a fish tale for the ages, after reeling in a monster marlin that was bigger than his boat.

Josh Roberts, of Whangarei, New Zealand, motored out to sea on May 5 in his 13-foot boat to do some deep sea fishing but was shocked when he hooked a 321-pound marlin that measured several feet longer than his boat, Fox News reported.

Roberts, 25, was thrilled with the catch. “It was an epic day,” he said. “I’ve caught other fish but I’ve never caught a striped marlin. I’ve been targeting one for the past 10 years,” he told the media.

The oil refinery worker noted that it took him half an hour to reel in the big fish.

“It had a lot of fight in it, so I got the fish to the boat in about half an hour, then tried to pull it in but failed because it still had plenty of energy left in it,” Roberts told the New Zealand Herald.

But after the long time of wrangling, the lucky fisherman found that the catch was so large that he couldn’t get it into his boat.

“I basically tied it up alongside the boat so it would drag through the water,” he said adding that he raced back to his dock to prevent sharks from stealing his catch away.

Roberts said that the fish yielded over 110 pounds of smoked marlin steaks, much of which he planned to give away to family and friends. It took him two days to cook the fish in his father-in-law’s smoker.

The fisherman also insisted that despite the monstrous catch, he won’t stop fishing. “I just love being out there on the water,” he said.

Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.