The Volunteer Marine Rescue Family Fishing Classic has been reeling in big catches for 14 years and this weekend proved as popular as ever.
Coordinator Eric Beckmann said it was the first time he’d organised the event with fellow VMR member Doug Krueger and the fishing event was bigger than anticipated.
Eric said it was the first time it was held over three days to include the Friday, which was well received by fishers and local businesses.
“We give away a boat every day courtesy of Boats Galore and there are 20 lucky draw prizes for the kids every day,” Eric said.
“We had close to $80,000 worth of giveaways this year and total sponsorship of $110,000 from local businesses – everyone really looks after us.
“The money raised goes towards buying boats and equipment, all for Bundaberg VMR.”
On Friday the wind kept the fishing interesting, but by Saturday and into Sunday conditions were close to perfect.
Local fisherman Stewart Small said he enjoyed his time out on the water during the VMR Family Fishing Classic.
“I thought the classic was great with a lot of flathead caught on day one and two,” Stewart said.
“Extremely windy conditions on Friday restricted our fishing to only a few places.
“We managed some good numbers but no real big girls. Happy rock softies being the stand-out lure for the day.”
Looking at the final leader board for the fishing classic the biggest fish was a 31.140kg cobia caught in open water.
As a keen fisherman Eric said the only thing he didn’t get a chance to do over the three-day event was to drop in a line himself.
“It’s such a big event with the big fishing culture in Bundaberg and the other really big thing is, you don’t have to catch a fish to win a prize,” Eric said.
Eric said the VMR Family Fishing Classic was successful and he thanked the sponsors again.
“Without all these wonderful sponsor we wouldn’t have a show,” he said.
“We had between 1400 to 1500 register this year and that’s really good.”
- Elliott and Kolan Rivers fishing well for flathead
