An Exmouth fisherman who survived six hours at sea treading water after hooking a marlin and falling overboard has spent a night in hospital recovering from hypothermia and shock.
Ross Chapman, believed to be in his 20s, was fishing 30 nautical miles off the coast near Exmouth around 8.30am Tuesday morning when he hooked the big fish.
WAtoday understands the keen angler, originally from New Zealand, was bringing a marlin into the side of his five-metre boat to be measured and weighed when his GoPro slipped, causing Mr Chapman to fall overboard as he tried to grab it.
His boat, which was in gear to allow the marlin to swim straight alongside the boat, continued on without him, leaving him stranded without a life jacket and treading water for six hours.
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By sheer luck, another boat out on the water was dragged to Mr Chapman's boat by a marlin that had taken 700 metres of line, leading them to come up alongside his abandoned vessel.
The marlin snapped off the line just at the right time to allow the fishers to divert their attention to realise there was no one inside Mr Chapman's boat.
They alerted marine rescue who immediately launched a search for him with many local boats in the area volunteering to help.
Before he was rescued around 2pm, Mr Chapman, who is a boilermaker by trade, had tried to swim towards a friend's boat he could see nearby but the current was too strong.
He was discharged from hospital on Wednesday morning with one friend remarking he was "absolutely rooted" after the ordeal.
Commander of Exmouth Volunteer Marine Rescue, Rusty Ellis, said the search for Mr Chapman had been "a little frantic" but luckily he was found.
WAtoday understands he was rescued by local fisherman who volunteered to help in the rescue after hearing a man had gone overboard.
"[Mr Chapman's] a regular fisherman in the marlin fishing scene and has been out there quite a bit of time by himself," Mr Ellis said.
"It was a little frantic there for a while but fortunately they did manage to find him.
"I believe he is ok.
"We're very, very very grateful that all the other boats in the region dropped what they were doing and raced over to assist in the search."
He said Mr Chapman was also fortunate the weather conditions were "quite nice" on Tuesday, with the water temperature sitting around 26 degrees compared to cooler levels just days earlier.
"The amount of hypothermia that he got wasn't as bad as it could have been," he said.
He advised others to reconsider solo voyages given "there are a lot of issues with people going out there on their own".
"If something like this happens, you have nobody to back you up," Mr Ellis said.
"Most vessels these days are fitted with safety leads to cut the motor should you fall over and they should be attached to your wrist.
"When you're doing things like he is and wrestling big fish, they can be attached to your waist or your ankle or something, so you still have a chance."
- with AAP