Birthday’s don’t get much bigger than this and the Burrum Heads Easter Fishing Classic 21st birthday has truly been epice. With fantastic weather the Easter Classic saw 962 senior, 495 junior angler entrants and a total of 1,457 registered anglers of all ages and ability come to fish this fabulous area.

Fish totals for senior and junior anglers at a snapshot were very impressive this Easter despite the recent heavy rainfall which flowed into the Burrum River catchment prior to the event. With 452 fish weighed in and a total weight of 363.371kg there were 243 live fish released back into the Burrum River. The Burrum Heads Easter Fishing Classic enjoys a solid reputation for sustainable fishing practices making this one of the major drawcards for the event.

Whether enjoying the village atmosphere of Burrum Heads or having a rod-bending, line-ripping good time, visitors and locals alike watched Nick Nolan from Toogoom take out Junior Champion with a bag total of 8 fish weighing in at 2.446kg. John Brown took out the $500 for heaviest whiting weighing in at 0.563kg, Caren Dahl took out the $500 for heaviest bream weighing in at 0.961kg, and Lochie Reed took out the $500 for heaviest flathead weighing in at 2.540kg. Joshua Ozane from Caboolture with a bag total of 18 fish weighing in at 10.512kg over 5 species took out Senior Champion angler and he was stoked.

Congratulations to the major winners for 2012 as you all deserved your victories.

Sunday saw the revamped Kids Clinic turn out to a huge success with the young people walking out with rods, reels, hand lines, t-shirts, and vouchers for their efforts including Emily Jones who was the only girl to cast and land the lure into the tyre during the casting clinic, not bad for a ‘first timer’.

With the shipment of eskies for the famously popular Esky Wheel not arriving, Bob Wicks owner of 2 local Bridgestone Tyre Centres and proud sponsor of the event for many years arranged for a fresh order just in time for the Burrum Heads Easter Fishing Classic, only trouble was the shipment contained pink eskies. Bob curiously asked, while scratching his head, what are we going to do with pink eskies? Well the answer was made very clear on both Saturday’s and Sunday’s Esky Wheel raffles that pink eskies are a major hit. Cheers Bob!

The popularity of the Esky Wheel has allowed the Easter Classic to raise much needed funds for community organisations and this year the Easter Classic raised $3.000 for the local Ambulance Service. With Mal Chard accepting the cheque, local ambulance officers hit the sirens as a sign of their gratitude for the needed donation.

In between a 60th birthday celebration, an engagement, giving away over $45,000 in prizes and a healthy donation to the local Ambulance Service, the randomly selected winner of the Super Draw Boating package worth $10,800 was Maryborough man Ian O’Louglin. This was the climax of the weekend and rounded out what has been the best Burrum Heads Easter Fishing Classic, and what a 21st Birthday it turned out to be. There was a huge birthday cake shared with those in attendance and the cake was cut by the club’s elder statesman Charlie Hobson after his beautiful dedication to the event.

The Burrum Heads Amateur Fishing Club, who hosts the Burrum Heads Easter Fishing Classic, would like to thank the 114 sponsors and local businesses who made generous donations for this event making it possible to provide some wonderful prizes to very worthy participants. You can have all the prizes in the world in the greatest location at Burrum Heads, but without the support from the public, this event would not be the great success year in and year out that people have come to love and enjoy. So a big thank you to all who competed and attended.

It won’t go without saying a big thank you to the commitment and dedication of the volunteers from the Burrum Heads Amateur Fishing Club who ensures a successful event. The volunteers will be back at it again later this year preparing for the 2013 Burrum Heads Easter Classic.

A grateful thank you to all the volunteers, well done!

On behalf of the Burrum Heads Amateur Fishing Club, thankyou one and all for supporting this great community event and we look forward to your support again as we look to continue the tradition to ensure this wonderful community event has a bright future and is even more exciting for the whole family.