LIGHTNING struck twice at the 26th annual Mornington Peninsula Tea Tree snapper fishing competition on the weekend, and it wasn't just from the heavens.

With fierce electrical storms providing a spectacular backdrop to Port Phillip and Western Port on Friday night, and which sent many anglers back to land, Hastings angler Martin Kraulis took out the prize for heaviest snapper with a 10.84-kilogram monster enticed from the depths of Western Port off Corinella, which he at first thought was a sting-

ray. He is also won the Victorian amateur snapper championship for 2009.

Mr Kraulis and his mother Marion had multiple snapper rods in the water and a lone whiting rig — and the big snapper chose to bite at the whiting rig with 15-pound line and fresh squid on the hook.

Mr Kraulis took home a selection of tackle, carved snapper trophy, safety jacket and voucher from a taxidermy company for his efforts, having won a similar prize two years ago.

John Beasy of competition organiser Snapper Point Angling Club said despite the unfriendly weather forecast, 1858 anglers, including 218 juniors, signed in for the comp.

"We had 786 boats and a total of 1631 fish weighed in including 427 from Western Port," he said. "Martin is a Western Port specialist snapper angler and good luck to him for winning this year.

"He also won first and second heaviest fish in 2009.

"The second-best fish, of 8.6kg, was caught by another Western Port fisherman, Sean Walker-Donnelly. The third heaviest fish weighing 6.54kg came from Port Phillip fisherman Greg Dixon, who said he missed third-heaviest fish a couple of years ago by 200 grams and was a little nervous as the bigger fish were placed on display."

Other winners were: Juniors: Dillon Anderson (6.10kg), Taylor Close (6.07kg) and Patrick Polistena (5.82kg). Random capture prizes: Jason Jennings and Chris Brown. Lucky draw: Anthony Bertucci. The last three won boats, outboards and trailers.