PICS: Exciting announcement for next year's Fishing Classic

'It was a massive turnout, the town is still busy today. They're still hanging around, and I think a lot of businesses benefited from it.'

GRAND WINNER: Nathan Kropp (general manager, Toyota) and Rick Modin with Rainbow Beach Family Fishing Classic $10,000 prize winner Shane Muller. Picture: Contributed

FISHING: Growing numbers, perfect weather and exciting sponsorship announcements heralded the roaring success of this year's Rainbow Beach Family Fishing Classic.

From last year's figures of more than 1500 people converging on the Cooloola Coast for the Classic and 400 of them picking up a rod, organiser Georgia Modin said she saw bigger numbers on both fronts over the eight-day event this time around.

2019 Rainbow Beach Family Fishing Classic

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Miss Modin said she was "super proud” of what the Classic had achieved for the region this year, and its growth since Milton and Ruth Modin began it in 1986.

"We got just off 500 entries by the end of the week, and over the week there were about 3000 fish laid in which was also crazy, we tried to crack 3000 but I think we were just short,” Miss Modin said.

"The weather was really good, there was plenty of fishing being done.

"On the weekends every time you'd turn around there were 1000 people standing there. The crowd was massive, and in the day the people would come in to see the fish getting laid in.

"It was a massive turnout, the town is still busy today (Monday). They're still hanging around, and I think a lot of businesses benefited from it.

"This was my first year coming on board and running it. I'll definitely be back again next year because the turnout was just so good.”

Miss Modin said Toyota will be a major sponsor from next year, with a new car as the grand prize.

"Kroppy (general manager Nathan Kropp) says it's just going to get bigger and bigger from here. He's ... got a tinny on board for next year as well. We also had Anaconda come on board this year, and the return of Jarvis Walker and ARB,” Miss Modin said.

Shane Muller won this year's $10,000 grand prize, after a random draw which saw three adults selected every night to put them in the "final draw down” on Saturday night. Twenty-four prizes were drawn out for the 24 adults, and the final prize was $10,000.