LET'S hope it doesn't suffer the same fate as the last one.

Seven months after an extremely rare blackspot anglerfish was caught at Susan River but died after jumping out of its tank, another has been reeled in by a Maryborough man.

Grant Turner was fishing for whiting off Poona yesterday morning when he pulled in the ugly creature, complete with distinctive finger-like appendages, on a small hook baited with squid and yabby.

“I've never, ever seen one before - it's the strangest thing I've ever seen,” he said.

“I had no idea what it was until my grandfather recognised it as the same fish on the front of the Chronicle a few months ago.”

Until last year, the fish had only ever been caught once in Australia.

And while Mr Turner's catch is yet to be scientifically confirmed as a blackspot anglerfish, or tathicarpus butleri, the Maryborough man is sure it's the same species as the fish caught at Susan River last year.

That fish was reeled in by Dundowran man Jack Stocks and later confirmed by a US-based fish expert.

A few months later, perhaps distressed at the prospect of life in captivity, it jumped out of its tank at Reefworld in Hervey Bay and died.

Its DNA was the first of the species to be entered into an international fish catalogue.

The blackspot anglerfish uses its elbow-like joints on the pectoral fins and finger-like appendages to hold on to rocks and wait for prey.

Its pelvis fins have developed joints which look similar to legs, complete with appendages that look similar to toes.