Two men thrown into the water when their dinghy was swamped by a wave off Papamoa last night swam for three hours to get back to the shore - and still managed to make it back with their chilly bin full of snapper.

Jason Yorke and Lyndon Enright, both 39, of Tauranga were fishing two kilometres from the shore when their three-metre aluminium dinghy was swamped by a wave at about 8.30pm.

Jason Yorke was out fishing with his friend Lyndon Enright when the wave struck. Photo: Facebook.

'We sort of bowed into a wave and the boat broached,” Jason told Stuff.

'It just rolled. If we didn't have life jackets on, we would have been pretty much toast.”

Lyndon scrambled to the top of the dinghy where he tried to get his mobile phone out of a plastic bag to call for help.

However, the phone had suffered water damage.

'I just said to him, ‘mate, here's our chilly bin with all our fish in it, and it's floating - let's just grab that and that will help us float',” adds Jason.

The men began their three hour swim back to shore, trying to keep each other in good spirits along the way. It was about 11.30pm by the time they made it back to shore.

Jason says not once did they think they weren't going to make it.

Jason and Lyndon came to shore 1km away from where a search team was looking for them and ended up having to walk up the coast, carrying their chilly bin full of snapper, after their three hour swim.

Stuff reports that fish is on the menu in the Yorke household tonight.

Senior Sergeant Glenn Saunders says the sea conditions at the time were slight to moderate. 'Fortunately, both men were wearing life jackets,” says Glenn. 'This is the best outcome of a bad situation.”

Lyndon Enright. Photo: Facebook.