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The patient wait for whitebait run
Tuesday, September 25, 2012 • Marino Harker-Smith
SOME people are getting a little, others are getting a lot and almost everybody wants their fix.

A fix of whitebait.

The whitebait fishing season has been under way for just over a month now and continues until November 30.

Wairoa whitebaiter Doug Waugh has been a keen whitebaiter for 40-odd years and still sets his net at the stand in the shallows near the river mouth that he built with his boys when they were young.

There was “nothing startling” about the season so far, although he did manage to net enough of the tiny delicacy for a fritter or two every other day, he said.

The whitebait had been “very scarce” for him but further up the river and in the deeper water, people were getting some “reasonable catches”.

“I would have spent 20 hours on the river for each pint I caught,” said Mr Waugh.

He had heard they were doing well at Te Arai River near Manutuke.

Department of Conservation (DoC) Gisborne-Whakatane Area biodiversity programme manager John Lucas said Hicks Bay waterways were having some reasonable catches but it was still pretty quiet around Gisborne rivers and streams.

Mr Lucas said it was still early. The Gisborne season did not usually pick up until about October, which was probably due to the rivers clearing up and some better runs as the season progressed.

“Whitebait run when they want to run,” he said.

DoC says whitebait species are in decline, mainly due to a lack of clean, healthy rivers and streams for the adult fish.

But planting and fencing stream edges could help lead to better whitebaiting in future years, as would following the fishing rules and net regulations which are available on the DoC website.
TINY DELICACY: Wairoa whitebait fisherman Doug Waugh re-sets his net in the shallows of the Wairoa River mouth. Picture by Marino Harker-Smith
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