But whatever the result, there is plenty of chat around it.
For Neville Henderson, watching and trying to see whitebait from his stand at the top of the catching area at Titiroa Stream, it has been one to forget.
"Very patchy. We started off all right but then the rain came and never went away. We would get a few but nothing to write home about," he said.
The rain had muddied the waters and led to a strong current in the stream. That had led to the whitebait — not the most powerful of fish — struggling to get too far upstream.
"There is plenty of whitebait around but they can not get through when the river is in flood."
The stream had stands littered from the top of the catchment area to Toetoes Harbour.
Marty Tautari has a stand much closer to the harbour and was not complaining.
He talked of some sizable catches and plenty of patties cooked when he went home after a day on the stand.
Last week he caught 14kg in one day, and had similar-sized catches over the season. Being nearer the estuary undoubtedly helped.
A few hundred metres as the bird flies from Titiroa Stream there are just as many stands on the much bigger Mataura River. Prime whitebaiting country.
But it has been all doom and gloom on that waterway.
It started very well as one whitebaiter said on day one, on September 1 — they bagged close to 22kg of the delicacy. The following day, he went out and it started raining in the afternoon — and he left.
He has not been back since as the rain continued to fall every day. The river levels rose, leading to flood, the water got dirty and no whitebait passed by. It had been one of the worst — if not the worst season — anyone could remember on the Mataura River.
The poor season for many fuelled the anger at having to pay increased stand fees to Environment Southland.
It is free to drag your net through the water, but the price for a licensed structure, or a stand, has increased from about $160 to $303 per season.
The shortened season — down to two months from three and a-half months — meant there was not the same time to catch the fish.
A longer season allowed waterways to recover from flood events, whitebaiters said.
The season was shortened to protect the fishery a couple of years ago.
Environment Southland increased the stand fees to cover actual costs and keep pace with inflation.
