Delighted fishermen hit the jackpot when they caught an enormous 270kg blue marlin off the coast of the Philippines.

Pao-Paw Ruta and his friends were fishing near Balabac town on Palawan island on February 22 when the massive sea creature began tugging on their line.

The men scrambled to land the ocean leviathan, which rocked the boat as it thrashed in the water.

Due to its sheer size, it took more than two hours before the beast was wrestled into submission and hauled onto their boat.

Pao-Paw said: 'This is a very rare occurrence because fish of this size and weight don't appear every day. We are very grateful for this blessing.'

He added that a buyer has already offered to take the blue marlin off their hands, but did not specify how much was earned from the catch.

Blue marlins are estimated to fetch between 280 to 300 PHP (around 5.05 to 5.4 US dollars) per kilo in Philippine markets. That would give Pao-Paw a payday of around 1,458 US dollars - more than four times his normal monthly earnings.

A fisherman in the Philippines' Cagayan province also caught a massive blue marlin on February 10. It weighed 212 kilograms and measured 299 centimetres in length.