By Goya Dmytryshchak
A Kings Park angler reeled in a whopping snapper after being caught in a storm off Altona over the Melbourne Cup long weekend.
Frank Panzera headed out from Altona after work over the Cup weekend, planning to spend the whole weekend on the water.
Instead, after two nights on Port Phillip Bay, he snagged the 9.8-kilogram monster.
“After work on a Thursday night, my son dropped me off at Altona boat ramp,” he said. “I was meant to stay out on the water for three days just to have a fish.
“The first night was very quiet, nothing happened. The following day it blew up a storm and I was in the middle of the bay.
“It got to 45 to 50 knots and the safest thing for me to do was to just drop the anchor and ride it out.”
He stayed put in his 7.5-metre boat.
“I rode it out the whole day and then into the night,” Mr Panzera said.
“Early in the morning, I decided to go out to the same spot where I had been and got rewarded by a 9.8 kilo snapper.”
Sadly, Mr Panzera wasn’t entered in the Melbourne Cup Snapper Challenge, hosted the same weekend by the Hobsons Bay Sport and Game Fishing Club.
“The biggest fish that got weighed in was 6.7 kilos, believe it or not,” he said.
