The man was fishing with friends on a beach in Icapui, in Brazil's northeastern state of Ceara, when he reeled in a small sole fish, according to police.
The fishermen then reportedly made a bizarre bet with his friends that he would be able to hold the slippery fish between his teeth for a minute.
But no sooner had he put the fish into his mouth that it escaped and swam down his throat, getting lodged in the man's windpipe.
Despite suffocating, the angler managed to get to his car and drive to a hospital two miles away.
But when he arrived there at 11am on Sunday he collapsed and died before doctors could save him.
Icapui's police chief Carlos Alberto said medics eventually removed the fish but it was already too late.
He said: "It was a silly thing to do, but he didn't deserve to die because of it."
On Tuesday morning the wife of the man who died after a fish swam down his throat posted a message on a social networking site saying her only consolation was that she was the best wife a husband could have, local media reported.
She wrote: "Only one thing comforts my heart, that I was the best wife and friend that I could have been. The best woman that I could be, there, in every hour and in every moment."
