Just enough for dinner

The rivers were dirty and the weather was cold, but for Trevor Carr and his grandson Taine Clinch (11) an afternoon of whitebaiting yesterday paid off with enough of the tiny fish for a meal of whitebait patties.

"I've had a lot of luck up here," Mr Carr said of his spot on the bank of the Waikouaiti River, on the first day of whitebaiting season.

That river was about the only place in Otago where whitebaiting would have brought much joy, Department of Conservation ranger Pete Ravenscroft said, with the Taieri, Clutha and other rivers dirty from recent rain.

The fish had been seen in some abundance, though, both in the bellies of trout caught in the past few weeks and in shoals in the Clutha, and the season was expected to be good once river waters cleared.