[fishforpot]

The million dollar question is , what is next season going to be like in the Waimac , Avon and Heathcote ???

I took a brief walk today around the Avon at Avonside drive opposite NB road …the river was alive …..and it wasnt fresh bait I was seeing ……Im not sure if it was cucumber fish or maturing whitebait ….from past experience , the cucumber fish travel inshoals , and dont mill about in here there and everywhere …..so I suspect it was adult bait ….

Anther thought that struck me today while discussing the same topic , adult whitebait dont mate then die like salmon ?? …..natural mortality aside , the breeding stock that filled the Waimac this season , will be at it again next year , along with any bait that gets past the millions of nets this year …

Next year will be very interesting ….

[yellowfin]

Yip, plenty of old bait in the Avon which is great to see, would love to see the rivers closed every 5yrs to build stocks!

[fishforpot]

2 years in a row countrywide …..imagine it …..if they could find somewhere to lay their eggs …….

Be that much bait around it would be more or less worthless , so the stocks would stay high

[Miliwolf]

Would certainly be interesting to see the results. Whitebait often get washed off course, so the river they swim up might not be the one they got laid in.

[yellowfin]

True, but there can be no doubt that the Avon/ Heathcote and the Waimakariri have benefited from last years closure, which would suggest that the majority of fish return to their natal river, much like salmon.

[fishforpot]

They spend 3-4 months at sea before coming up the rivers ….. Maybe the Peninsula helps the Waimac/Avon stock stay localised , but that is a lot of time to drift a long way

Ive heard the Ashley has fished awesome this year as well …..wonder if other rivers nearby have too …..

Creeks around Banks Peninsula , the river north of Amberly , waiau is it ? …..

[yellowfin]

I’ve heard similar about the Ashley, it shows though that there must be plenty of spawning habitat in these rivers for the stocks to explode like they have in just one season!!

[yellowfin]

it wouldnt be to hard to close the season for a few years and police it but remember who takes control over whitebaiting i dont think they ever will

[yellowfin]

have you had any luck lately Tom?

[yellowfin]

you heard the story with the missing bin kev lol

was dead today though

[yellowfin]

Yeah, that’s a story for your grand kids mate lol

[fishforpot]

Holy smoke …..walked around a bit of NB road with the polaroids on today ….5-6lb of bait milling around the outlet of HS Lake …. and continual shoals joining them …
3 eels 5-6lb easy sitting sunning themselves …then I saw a couple of trout , not big – maybe 1-1/2 lb , then I saw the rest of them , it was a shoal of mullet , huge suckers …

The bait were all over the place ….
Thinking back 30yrs , the best day I ever saw , it was thicker than that …… and it’s quite likely just an average day this season ….

I heard on the weekend of guys filling buckets with the stuff up in town …..and a 100mtr shoal cruising up the river ….

I had a dungout a month ago , the neighbour has a large pile of scrap metal that I added to lol ….Id dumped my old pole net on it as I never use it , but after what I saw last week , I grabbed it back …..might be using it next year …..going to be wicked …….

[yellowfin]

I know of a catch which weighed 131lbs made on friday…not by me lol, but i seen a shoal of bait that was continuous for 2 hours and that is no shit..never seen anything like it EVER!!! a couple of other forum members can confirm!!

[yellowfin]

[Miliwolf]

I hope a lot of the little fellows managed to make it past all of the Nets, Kahawai, Mullets, Flounders and Trout so they can boost the adult numbers for next year. But so many whitebaiters just see them as little dollars heading upstream and their greed takes over. 2kg daily bag limit should be introduced, people caught violating it should have their elbows and knees broken then thrown into the river as a example.

Went for a bait myself tonight, spent the first hour staring intently at the water and only one shoal of around 15 bait swam past, scooped them up but felt sorry for the little buggers so liberated them. Then I went trout fishing instead

[Author]

Posts