A Gold Coast fisherman landed a whopping four-metre tiger shark on a beach just south of the Queensland border at the weekend before setting it free again.

Gold Coast fisherman Max Muggeridge struggled with the four metre tiger shark for three hours. (Supplied:Alexia Rivera)

Max Muggeridge of Coomera is still feeling worse for wear nursing blood-blistered hands after an epic three-hour fight to reel in the shark while land fishing at Pottsville.

The 19-year-old stands just under six foot tall and weighs about 90 kilograms, but 20 seconds into the struggle he thought he might be severely outgunned by the monster.

"It definitely was a lot stronger... it was a lot bigger and better than me, that's for sure," he has told ABC Gold Coast's Nicole Dyer.

"I honestly thought that I wasn't going to be able to do it, I thought it was going to be one of them stories of the one that got away."

Max puts his catch down to a combination of patience, perseverance and luck.

He says he did not set out to land such a big shark.

"I was only aiming for a shark maybe half if not smaller than that size, then in the morning I got a bit of an awakening when I realised just how big the fish was that I hooked," he said.

After taking a few photos with the shark in the shallows, Max led it back into the water.

He says he catches sharks in the name of conservation, to track already tagged sharks for research.

"Their migration patterns, their movements - for preservation of their species for future years to come," he said.

He says sharks are resilient and deal well with being caught and released.

"For me when I bring a shark in, it's a duty for me to make sure that it swims off," he said.

"Unfortunately it's the only way for the shark species conservation to continue, for us to gain research and knowledge about these species."

Listen to Max Muggeridge's full interview on ABC Gold Coast Mornings.