And he should know.
Mr Haar (68), of Dunedin, has been whitebaiting for 50 years, the last four of them at the same stand, at the end of Paretai Punt Rd on Inch Clutha.
He got 0.5kg of whitebait yesterday morning, not a bad catch, he said, but the morning's haul brought his total since the season started on Saturday to just over 1kg.
Last year, he netted 9kg of whitebait compared with 29kg in 2007 and 27kg in 2006.
According to the postie who dropped off the newspaper to his caravan on Monday, across on the Matau branch of the Clutha, the delicacy had been running better, with one person netting 2.27kg in one haul at the weekend.
Although the mouth of the Koau branch was a little blocked this year, there was never any real way to tell if a river would offer a good whitebaiting season, except to watch and wait, he said.
"You just don't know when they're going to run."
So, for the next three and a-half months he would be there, waiting, in his second-hand Zephyr caravan.
A generator in a nearby maimai supplied the power for all the creature comforts, including lights and a television.
He would pull up his neatly engineered net, complete with pulley system, several times a day, with the tide.
Sometimes, his granddaughter or wife would join him for a night, "but [Mrs Haar] doesn't like the water much".
And, when he did get a decent haul, it was not straight into the batter and on to the gas cooker. Rather, the catch was destined for the freezer, for savouring at a later date.
"Oh, I love it. I could have whitebait for breakfast, dinner and tea. I just don't get sick of whitebait."
