A family out fishing last week caught more than salmon.

Ashton Phillips was on a fishing trip last Friday with his cousin and uncle in Kyuquot, B.C. on the northwest side of Vancouver Island when he captured a video of an eagle swooping down to grab a piece of salmon.

His group had pulled into a bay around noon to strip up a fresh piece of salmon for halibut fishing.

"As we were sitting there cutting pieces of salmon … I noticed there were a few eagles flying around," said Phillips, who lives in Vancouver.

"I thought that was pretty cool because I hadn't really been exposed to that too much."

Phillips had his camera out to capture some of the scenery when out of nowhere, he saw a bird cut from the shore and head towards the boat — just in time for lunch.

"Holy Cow. It's flying right towards us."

As the bird swooped down, it grabbed the piece of salmon and shocked everybody on board.

"I panned over and hit the slow [motion] right as this bird was coming right at us," Phillips said.

Phillips realized right away he had captured something special. Once he returned to Rugged Point Lodge and could get online, he immediately posted what he described as a "magical moment" to his Facebook page.

As of Tuesday afternoon, more than 21,000 people had shared the eagle's grab and go lunch video.

While some on social media have been critical of the video, saying it looks like the salmon was intentionally left out for the eagle and the shot was staged to be shot in slow motion, Phillips says that was not the case.

"Honestly, I just got lucky. I'm not a photographer and I just happened to be in the right place and got a once-in-a-lifetime shot."