In an exciting Father’s Day outing, a Texas fisherman reeled in a large alligator snapping turtle, an almost prehistoric species. 

Justin Broomhall, 25, of Longview, Texas, who has been fishing since he was a child, was hoping for catfish on a day out with his family.

At first, the catfish seemed to be biting, but quickly disappeared, because his line had attracted an alligator snapping turtle, a threatened species, according to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

Assuming it was a large catfish on the line, Justin and his dad tried for several minutes to reel it in, and were able to get it to shore, and discovered the surprising catch. 

The massive turtle managed to get free, but Justin, knowing that he had to let it go, wanted to get the hook out of the turtle’s mouth and make sure it wasn’t badly injured. He and his father brought the turtle onto the land in order to tend to it. 

Broomhall says the turtle probably weighed about 160 pounds or more and could possibly be 100 years old or more. He also said the reptile had a lot of scars and was missing some fingers. 

The fisherman and his father took the hook out of the turtle’s mouth and returned it into the lake.

Justin said he would love to meet with the reptile again and see how it’s doing.