Insane moment a huge great white shark attacks a fishing boat in rare footage

A group of experienced fishermen had a close encounter with three great white sharks during a fishing competition in Australia.

Captain John Smith of the X-Stream fishing team said they were participating in an annual competition off the coast of Port Stephens in New South Wales last Saturday (15 February).

As the team were trying to attract legal shark species to their boat, a five-metre great white shark, which would have weighed over 1,500 pounds, approached.

Take a look at the terrifying footage below:

After distancing themselves from the first shark, a second approached the boat only half an hour later.

When they eventually managed to shake it off by feeding it, a third shark then popped up.

“I’ve been game fishing since I was 12 years old, I’m 54 now, and I haven’t seen a great deal of whites,” Smith told The Canberra Times.

“I’ve seen one 20-odd years ago, a big fella, but to see three in a day, it’s just next level.

“A fish that big, they don’t have any fear factor.

“We teased them up with the burley bag and got some unbelievable footage.”

Yikes (X-Stream/John Smith)

Smith added: “We had it chewing on the back corner at one stage.

“They’re a protected species so we’re not allowed to fish for them, so we don’t target them, we don’t try to catch them, we just try to get rid of them we best we can.”

Newcastle and Port Stephens Game Fish Club president Troy Radford warned that the second fish 'could have done some damage' to the five-and-a-half metre boat.

"They’re seasoned fishermen and they’ve seen a lot of sharks, but it still blew their mind seeing one of them up close, they’re beautiful creatures," he said.

This was just one of three sharks that approached the boat (X-Stream/John Smith)

"Earlier, it was chewing on the corner of the boat, it was chewing on its side gunnel," Radford also told Daily Mail Australia.

"It's so big that it managed to pull the boat down [into the water] a bit... Big fish, small boat."

During the second day, the completion was called off due to bad weather and Radford joined the group for some beers when they showed him the footage.

He praised how calm they were under such terrifying circumstances.

"They were still so excited. They were in awe. The adrenaline was still pumping," Radford added.

The club president noted that it's very 'uncommon' to witness so many sharks in a single day.