Who goes White baiting....and WHY?

https://youtu.be/qcVpV0INmbo?si=KXYpVAWNNIjbey26

Stopped in NZ with Shanks and Mick as soon as I saw whitebait sangas on the board out front of a shop......mmmmmmm yum.

They are yum, but I dont have the time or patience to go get them. Usually barter a few feeds in exchange for pork or venison etc.

That video is showing 'scoop' netting for whitebait at or near the river mouth. Can be dangerous, quite a few whitebaiters have lost their lives over the years, not long before I left the WestCoast of our South Island I was involved in a search and rescue operation to find a whitebaiter swept out to sea from a river mouth earlier in the day. I spotted a yellow object about 500m or so along the beach from the river mouth, we had found the poor bugger still in his yellow raincoat and boots.

I had a registered whitebait stand on a South Westland river for 'set' net fishing. Sold it for $1000 (back in '89) when I left the area. some of the best sites have sold for $15k-$20k when they have come on the market. South Westland is the mecca for whitebait in NZ. Tonnes of the little clear fish are caught every season and fetch high prices on the market.

Whitebait patties made with a little egg, flour and milk, often in a buttie sandwich, are the gourmet way to eat these delicious fish.

Someone used to find heaps when I hunted Stewart Island in '78. I recall them as little white buggers with blue eyes, which went well in fritters.

That was a hell of a place to hunt and eat, with whitetail, whitebait, oysters, crayfish, trumpeter and paua all coming to our table, IIRC.