"I said, 'Hey, John, the skink's alive.' John said, 'Wow man, it just blinked at me, and look, it's breathing.'"

The lizard began to struggle and with a little help from the fisherman it crawled from its captor's jaws. There were some teeth marks down its back and the tail was partially digested, but when they put it back on the river bank it happily scurried off.

"We witnessed the ultimate will to survive," Simson said. "The skink had probably slowed down its heart rate in order to stay alive for that length of time underwater without air."

There are more amazing photographs of Simon's fishing adventures on his Web site at www.kettafly.com.

I couldn't clip the photos from the Courier Mail. Worth viewing.

Lucky..

OMG that photo is crazy weird! That was an epic escape, in terms of fish and lizards. I didn't know fish like to feast on lizards.

very cool, the fisherman rescued the skink
Simon's fishing adventures site is great