REMEMBER WHEN

GOLD COAST BULLETIN Friday, July 25, 2007

THEY’RE big, mean and seriously powerful, but a gigantic cobia was no match for 74-year-old granny Daphne Fancutt.

The former tennis pro pulled off the near-impossible when she landed a massive 53kg, 1.7m monster after an intense two-hour fight.

Mrs Fancutt, who played in the 1956 women’s doubles final at Wimbledon, was fishing with her son Michael at a reef off the Gold Coast known as the 18 Fathoms when she hooked the giant about 5pm.

The grandmother of seven fought for two hours, managing to wear down and out-smart a species notorious for putting up a hard fight.

“I thought, let’s sacrifice a fresh piece of taylor, put it on the hooks with a heavier sinker and see what happens,” she said.

“This is what happened.” Mrs Fancutt battled with the fish for the first hour before taking turns with her son.

“My son said, ’you either catch it or lose it Mum’, but after an I hour I said I needed a break, then we took turns because he got tired, I got tired, even the fish got tired, so it was a battle of wills.

“It was physically pretty tough. It went round the boat in circles like you couldn’t believe at a thousand miles an hour, it was like a torpedo.

“I said to Michael if we ever get that in the boat it’s a miracle. I said it’s going to pull you overboard.

“The doctor said to me don’t do any lifting, but it’s amazing what a bit of adrenalin pumping through can do.”