Whitebaiting at Taramakau River - Joe Chidgey helping Dolly Johnson.

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DescriptionTamai Sinclair
The river I enjoy to bait at, most times there are as many women as there are men, who are keen scoopers. Check out the rig, the, Kahikatea/White pine pole/handle, supplejack was the usual net frame, but that looks too straight for supplejack? The Taramakau net, possibly sewn by Mrs Johnston herself. Each river mouth has its own protocols, for example, the Taramakau, southside/Kumara, have different rules to the north side/Camerons. When you arrive at the southside, someone in the group of scoopers will usually feel sorry for you and point out who was the last one to arrive. You then get to follow that person in the line. You can be lucky and find that the last person is the next one up. When that happens, you might have enough time to get set-up and be after them. Or, they have just finished, or are still fishing and you have to wait for the cycle of maybe 30 people for your turn. Some people enjoy the solitude of setnet fishing others enjoy the social chit chat and cameradie of scooping with a group. There is always someone, when the bait is running, who waits for the person in front of them to finish their drag before they start, this might be a distance of 20 to 30 yards and take say ten minutes, feels like an hour, before that person starts. You can hear the mumbles from the people behind them, telling old ... ........... to get a move on. The bait might only run for 30 minutes and if you don't have your net in the water you don't catch bait. Across the river it seems to me that they fish cack handed. On the south side your left hand holds the pole and the right hand controls the depth and angle of the net, obviously its the reverse on the other side. On the northside/Camerons, their protocols allow for another scooper to tuck in behind the person in front, so they get almost double the scoops than those on the southside. I have pointed this out to a few old hands and their suggestion, in no uncertain terms, is to go over there....Like all spots there are great characters, hopefully any new scoopers haven't ruined the friendly competitiveness.

Map^[1]ContributorJessie Guy‎

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Location (city or town)TaramakauCameronsPersonJoe ChidgeyDolly JohnsonEventWhitebaiting at Taramakau River, Camerons.

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Category Tagwhitebaiting

From Facebook

Date Created21st April 2020CommentsMax Johnson
And the other is my grandmother Dorothy Johnson from Cameron’s Nickname Dolly

Paul Cheryl Culling
Used to know Joe from Mokihinui days,he would always make is kids laugh,awesome man and a great Surfcaster

Barbara Reed
Paul Cheryl Culling Joe was a lovely man . Christmas was the highlight of the year growing up when you all used to come to Mokihinui the fishing comps and galas the good old days

Paul Cheryl Culling
Barbara Reed fantastic time in our lives

My grandmother dolly my first born Rebecca dorothy named after her

Lynn Mc Queen
Its spelt...JOHNSON
not Johnston
Dolly never liked her photo taken..especially when she had her Oil Skin coat on...
Every year before White Bait season she would do a trip to town to buy a new Oil Skin coat...yards of netting & thread then sit at night making a new net for the Whitebaiting scoop frame which was hand made..wooden handle & supple jack to hold & attach the net also hand stitched on....she was never late to catch the tide walking from her house down the rail line till opposite Smiths farm down through the farm to the mouth of the river always fished on the north side..& yes they all new to take there place in the line & wait there turn...if someone pushed in the line they would gang up on them to get rid of that person..
& yes Dolly would have been telling Joe to bugger off...
Anne-Marie Dixon
What a photo of my Mum. Never seen it before.
Noreen Buckley 3rd left she would have been 14

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Whitebaiting at Taramakau River - Joe Chidgey helping Dolly Johnson.

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