Great white shark lured to fisherman's boat in Jaws-like incident off Jersey Shore

Video shows the shark leaping up to the boat

A man in New Jersey spotted a great white shark while out fishing on Monday - and caught the whole thing on camera.

In what he called the “best day ever on the water,” boat captain Jeff Crilly lured the shark towards his boat, Big Nutz Required II, with a bag of food.

The incident happened as Mr Crilly was sailing in the Manasquan inlet off the coast of New Jersey, known as the Jersey Shore, with his brother Scott.

In a video later posted to Facebook, the shark leaps up to the boat, giving the two-man crew a shock.

“We saw like v-waves, little ripples, in the back of the slick. We’re like – there’s something in there,” Jeff later told Pix 11. “The shark would be from tail, here at the end of the boat – it’s head would be inside the boat… easily.

Despite the seemingly immediate danger, the brothers laughed and yelled “this thing is huge!” as the shark approaches them. The cheers veer into nerves, with a chorus of “Holy s***!” as the animal appears to get closer.

Mr Crilly says he thinks the shark was about 16 to 18 feet long.

“This is the coolest f****** thing I’ve ever seen!” the narrator of the video, presumed to be Mr Crilly, says as the shark leaps towards his boat. “Once in a lifetime.”

Later, he told the Asbury Park Press "We've fished for sharks a lot and never seen anything like that.”

“We were amazed by how big it was," he added.

Last month, a great white shark was spotted in the nearby Long Island Sound. Those who spotted it said it was their first sighting of the animal “ever.”