Fisherman filmed battling with watersnake to catch catfish on Lake Livingston

The snake had bitten into the catfish already when the man plucked both out of the water.

A man out fishing with his son on Lake Livingston in Texas caught more than he bargained for.

Bo Dudley and his 11-year-old boy Glenn filmed the moment they pulled a catfish out of the water only to discover they had a fight on their hands for the catch with someone - or rather, something - else.

Biting into the side of the catfish was a watersnake, trying its best to hold on to what it thought was dinner until the Dudleys interrupted its meal. "God he's big," says Glenn in shock.

"He can have that catfish," says Bo, before dropping his catch and the snake back into the water.

The footage was sent to ABC13 Houston by the Dudleys and posted to Facebook where at the time of writing it has 130,000 views.

According to the website Lake Lubbers, Lake Livingston is known as the catfish capital of Texas.

"Fish records include a 78-pound blue catfish, a 114-pound flathead catfish, a 12.88-pound hybrid striped bass and a 31.5-pound striped bass," it says.

Another recent close encounter with a snake was caught on camera in Georgia when a man reached into a petrol pump to pull out a live 4ft snake that was hiding inside.