A man who traveled from Fleetwood, England to Florida is going to have quite the story to tell about his fishing trip when he gets back home.

Ian Atherton went shark fishing in Cocoa Beach on April 9 alongside Fin & Fly charters Capt. Jon Cangianella with the goal of reeling in a shark, according to Florida Today, but instead, they caught something that resembles a large gardening tool to cut shrubbery.

They went out to a spot a few miles from the land, and used bluefish as bait to attract any nearby sharks. Atherton felt something right away, and went on to try and reel in what he thought was a shark for nearly an hour.

Instead, a rare smalltooth sawfish's rostrum (the saw-like piece of cartilage) poked out of the water as it approached their boat.

Smalltooth sawfish are considered a critically endangered species, and there could be anywhere from only 200 to as many as 5,000 adults left in the world, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). Nearly all of the living sawfish live in Florida, and are historically found on the East Coast and throughout the Gulf of Mexico.

The rostrum can be about four to five feet long, and the smalltooth sawfish itself can grow up to 16 feet long.

Atherton didn't achieve his goal of catching a shark, but he'll never forget what he did actually catch.

Cangianella did the right thing and decided to unhook the sawfish without removing it from the water before letting it free.

According to Florida Today, Atherton did eventually catch a few king mackerel that he didn't have to send back to the water. He'll have to plan another vacation to Florida if he wants to check off catching a shark from his bucket list.