Whitebaiter happy to stay on the river
Veteran whitebaiter Bruce Lawson hasn’t missed a trip to his family’s favourite fishing spots since he was born.
Lawson was two months old when he accompanied his parents to the Titiroa River. Four generations of his family have caught whitebait in the Gorge Road area and now they fish on the Mataura River in Southland.
‘‘I’ve probably fished [for whitebait] the longest in the Gorge Road area,’’ the 79-year-old Lawson said.
The season runs from August 15 to November 30 but Lawson doubts he will be fishing in the first week.
Whitebaiting was as popular as ever and stands in good areas were always in demand, he said.
He knew of one person selling two stands and a hut for $75,000 this year and other sales finalised at $30,000 to $50,000.
Lawson remembers as a 15- year-old catching an H&H bus from Invercargill to Gorge Road on a Friday night to spend the weekend whitebaiting.
He stayed on his own in the family’s hut and was picked up by his parents on the Sunday.
‘‘It was a wooden hut, with canvas bags glued together for a roof and had a tin chimney.’’
Whitebait was in plentiful supply when Lawson was a young man in the 1940s-50s.
‘‘It was everywhere, if you couldn’t fill up a biscuit tin with whitebait, there was something wrong. People would come out from town to buy it off me [at weekends].’’
As a schoolboy he made whitebait nets using a sewing machine – a skill he has retained to make nets for himself and a few friends.
When asked if he ever thought of giving up whitebaiting, he replied: ‘‘S..t no, it’s so relaxing to go down there.’’
Lawson usually goes to the river for day trips, arriving an hour before low tide and leaving an hour after high tide. He occasionally finds a trout, flounder or eel among whitebait in his net.
His best catch in a day was 13.6kg about 25 years ago. ‘‘A low and clear river are the best conditions for fishing, in my opinion,’’ Lawson said.
He’s got a simple way to cook whitebait by putting it in a frypan with butter, salt and pepper.
Department of Conservation ranger Phil Melgren and Southland Fish & Game Council manager Zane Moss said rivers in the province were looking good. Moss said rivers were affected by two floods this winter and neither was catastrophic.
‘‘It was everywhere, if you couldn’t fill up a biscuit tin with whitebait, there was something wrong.’’ Bruce Lawson, 79, said whitebait was plentiful in the 1940s-50s.