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Craig Hames with whitebait from the Grey River - by the old wharf.1970`s
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DescriptionCraig Hames recalls whitebaiting on the Grey River, at the old wharf:
Because we couldn't get on the big rock it was the next best thing, I have memories of a run one day and I filled my bucket and took both my gumboots off and filled them as well. Those were the days. I did clean the gumboot ones very well.Date of Photo1970`sMap[1] ContributorCraig Hames
Because we couldn't get on the big rock it was the next best thing, I have memories of a run one day and I filled my bucket and took both my gumboots off and filled them as well. Those were the days. I did clean the gumboot ones very well.Date of Photo1970`sMap[1] ContributorCraig Hames
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Location (city or town)GreymouthPersonCraig HamesEventWhitebaiting on the Grey River by the old wharf
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Category Tagwhitebaiting
From Facebook
Date Created13th June 2021CommentsWayne Leckie
Did the cops have it? Or Opo??
Craig Hames
Wayne Leckie i think the cops or maybe fire guys
Tony Ring
Cops took it off Opo plus the log under the new bridge.
Laurie Anderson
The photo here is Graeme Anderson on the Whanganui River Hari Hari. Suggest you edit this post Laura
Craig Hames
Laurie Anderson hi lauri its the only photo f bucket of whitebait I could find , never said it was me
Wayne Leckie
Richard Sandra Case remember fishing off your stand first one before the big rock. Caught heaps off there used to piss the big rock people off lol
Dorothy Wills
Wow would be traumatic if you got that amount today, love to have a feed or so of whitebait but haven’t had any for a couple of years now, I prefer coast whitebait has got the best taste
Deb Corich
Wow!
Mike Waghorne
Maybe a bit of a tall story but in the 1950s I heard people in Taylorville claim that 'in the old days' they used to catch so many that they used the excess as fertiliser...
Christine Hogg
Mike Waghorne it's true, my parents spoke of a year like that, just like a thick rope coming up the Hoki River, Grandma's chooks got sick of whitebait and refused to eat them
Brendan Stewart
Mike Waghorne does the bait make it that far and isnt too big too eat from there ?
Sandra Arnott
Big rock best place!
Brian Borgfeldt
Scoop nettimg on the Buller. Lilled the net. Had to bring buckets to net to empty it.
Don McNarn
We had the same in the Buller river
We could fill a kerosene tin in 2 hours. That was in the 40s when most of the adult males were overseas
Brendan Stewart
Choice man ! ..we used to get some good runs by cobden cave
Sheryl Iraia
I remember my father bringing home kerosene tins full of whitebait.
Pauline Webby
True my parents on the Grey River in the early 60's used to fill the old blue kerosene tins full and what was left over used to put on the veg garden
Alva Mundy
I remember going to Cameron’s white baiting with my dad we caught lots then
Saali Marks
Shame they're a bit stuffed now
Sandra Hughes
I remember it being buried in the garden because it was so plentiful you couldn't give it away
Brian Borgfeldt
Sandra Hughes Yep. Dug it in the garden at Kaiata in the 50s.
Wendy Perkins
That’s how much my mum Shirley Perkins would bring home. We gave jars full to the neighbours.Christine Hansen
Yes, I remember the feeding them to the chooks story..
Trevor Wylde
I can remember late 40's early 50's at the bach at Punakaiki if someone suggested whitebait for tea we would checkout the tide and off with net down to Porari River put net in scoop and away home with a feed in.the net. No refrigeration those days so what was required to feed us all was cooked the rest went to cats or dug in garden. Next time you wanted a feed back to river with net.
· Reply · 11h
Shona Ratana
Never saw that amount of whitebait
Rod Berry
My father once told me of my grandfather, would dig heaps of whitebait into the vege garden. The Wanganui River at Hari Hari would run black with the little fish and if you were standing out in the water you would feel them continuously hitting your le… See More
\Jacqui Espinoza
Omg!
Rachel Gibbs
There were a lot of whitebait around then. My great uncles and dad used to get a posy near THE bridge at Westport.
]
Colleen Ming
Back in the 50s my Grandmother always visited us in Christchurch on the train from Greymouth and had many mason jars full of whitebait for us. We had so much that my Mum would fertilize the roses with it. How I miss whitebait in Canada
Margi Adamson
I remember buckets full of whitebait years back.
Mary Molloy
they still get them in spite of DOC saying otherwise - people no longer tell you
Tom Jones
Mary Molloy not wrong about that, plus people shared with there neighbors n friends(wasn't worth much when I started baiting-same as bluff oysters), I love being down the river,good n bad seasons-regardless of the catch
John Webster
Mary Molloy what has DOC got to do with it Mary,I have been away for a long time
Jeff Carter
Good old days
Ann Wilson
Remember my Dad saying they used to catch them by the kerosine tin full ended up digging them in the garden
Tony Warner
I pitched a tent on the rock wall in the middle of the Buller river at high tide the swells would hit the side of the tent and ripple under our mattress we had put black polythene under the mattress so it was water proof and taped it together as the first rays of sun hit the water early morning the whitebait would pour around the tip of the wall the shoals were so wide and long you just fished in the middle of the shoal and trawled as slow as you could and when you pulled the net out of the water they were still coming around the tip of the rock wall back in the late 80s
Trevor Keith Scott
It was a few days ago now when I was looking down on the big Rock Grey Wharf area. The Pensioners were on the rock dragging, when one of them headed across to Pub to go to the toilet. That was when some rough buggers climbed down and kicked the other old fellow off. Now a shunter at the time saw what happened and climbed down, and after an altercation threw the two bad buggers into the river giving the rock back to the Pensioners. I have been trying hard to think of the Maori Shunters name but it eludes me. Anyway those bad buggers wanted white bait so they were amongst them!!!
Sonia Moore
My then boyfriend and I would sleep overnight on Cobden island ready for first light. Get sugar bags full.
Lynnette Walford
Ha ha like on the Mokihinui river ,you had to be careful not to get thrown in,us kids used to run like he'll when we,d hear the owner coming ...
Bruce Macnab
Great memories
Craig Angela Bell
Yep, carry on taking as much as you can. And when there's none left We will wonder why. When are people going to wake up?Angela Anderson
There is no shortage of bait. It comes and goes and all ways has. 100 years ago they were digging it into the ground. The powers that be dont have any prove that there is a shortage. I have seen big runs of bait pass by where we fished, there was no way you could catch as they were on a run heading up to sporn. Of late there have been some great seasons. Fisher people dont talk about what they get. I am happy with what the minister has come up with the changes. Good to see the rest of NZ will come into line with the West Coast Regulations. Would like to have seen the traps taken out of net and the sock net removed but not to be.
Angela Anderson
My Mother caught so much bait this day that she run out of things to put it in. She would say you never caught out. So the hub caps came off the car and they were filled. She fished by placing a net on the river floor like a sheet and cleared a way for the fish to come in. The net was kept down with stones.Mary Hall
My Mum used to whitebait on the Grey River.She used to buckets too.Mum and Dad had the florist shop
Diane Whittle
I so remember how my mum would be up sooo early to try and get the big rock, didn't happen often but yes she did get it, on the odd occasion, best spot be for sure! So, we used to have so much whitebait, fresh and in the freezer, when the next season rolled around, last year's got ditched out of the freezer and the fresher catch went in. Where did the old stuff go? Yup, buried in the garden, to be fair not a lot but still, these days, a nearly criminal act... Sigh life back then ah!
Mandy Bruce
I remember white baiting off the rocks of the grey river near the warf . We use to take the first catch one for my Grandads cat lol imagine do that now wr use to get heaps.
Marie Summers
i got 270lb off the grey thats wen tv3 came to see all the bait that poured up
Toby Symes
I used to whitebait on big Totara river, near Westport
Jim Clark
was always a good plan to stick a flour bag or two in your pocket just in case
Dorothy Wills
Awesome pics!
Sandra Arnott
Yip could runs like that on the grey as well great days way back eh!
Grant Ellingford
Yep I remember 1978 and 79 opposite fisherman wharf, Blaketown on rocks awesome catches also Miil Creek and behind Paroa pub.
Arlene Hutcheon
Yummy!!!
Marlene Jackson Perry
OMG, I remember those times!!
Lynda Lander
Ohhhhhhhh I can still taste whitebait.
Christine Hansen
Mum used to say they had so many in the day they'd feed them to the chooks
C May L'Huillier
Christine Hansen yes chooks gobbled them down quickly
Christine Hansen
C May L'Huillier .. hard to believe there was so many in the day.. and to think they fulled a kerosene tin.. we wish today
Barry Hand
I remember those days, my next door neighbour Fran Clark caught a shoal in the Buller River that filled a kerosene tin and a flour sack and a pillow case. The pillow case burst and all the Whitebait in there made a break for the river.
Reply
Ken Duncan
my great grandfather Bill Bannister once had to sink his row boat to put it all in but then found they couldn't give it all away so put it on garden. in south Westland of course in those days not a lot of people through. we used to get old kerosene tins arrive with a truck on our doorstep in Dunsandel
Roger Sullivan
What's the difference between then and now days
Roger Sullivan
It's there but you just don't hear about it now days
MIcheal Hunt
still can vividly recall my nan in her 70s baiting at rapahoe then the water would come in and she would be waist high or higher in water
Terry MJ
Loved whitebait and pulled a lot out of the Grey over the years but ALWAYS on the Cobden side. Was a bit concerned about the bait on the Grey side which had to swim though what was pouring out of the sewer outlet in Blaketown, no thanks, haha !!!
Dave Newman
1970s? Quad bikes weren't invented till 1982.
Trigger Elvin
Dave Newman '61 in Canada, Suzuki in '82 and Honda in ’86.
Pete King
Dave Newman no quad bike in that pic
Hemi Mason
Yes it was like that on the Arahura river back in the 70s 80s lot off bait about not like that today sad to say
Anne Honey
Just like the old days.Great
29m
ReplyTrevor Taylor
This greed is why the fishery is now so depleted.
Geoffrey King
My father Ron, caught 18 kerosene tins of whitebait early Saturday morning in the early / mid 50's off the stern of the Dolphin, berthed just behind the Melva S, first fishing vessel after the big rock.
Karen Green
Shame people got greedy het
Sandra Arnott
Ha ha I do remember those days eh!
Barbara Barry Gerrard
And I bet you savoured each one
Dave Newman
1970s they didnt have 4 wheelers and Ravensdown didnt have that logo.
Graeme John Hill
Use to go across their at lunch time when i worked at Trumans and Bobs Jean shop.
Phyllis Williams
Oh I remember those days well
Tex Everett
The ones in the gumboots would have had the best flavour. ??
Barbara Barry Gerrard
Heaven in a bucket
Did the cops have it? Or Opo??
Craig Hames
Wayne Leckie i think the cops or maybe fire guys
Tony Ring
Cops took it off Opo plus the log under the new bridge.
Laurie Anderson
The photo here is Graeme Anderson on the Whanganui River Hari Hari. Suggest you edit this post Laura
Craig Hames
Laurie Anderson hi lauri its the only photo f bucket of whitebait I could find , never said it was me
Wayne Leckie
Richard Sandra Case remember fishing off your stand first one before the big rock. Caught heaps off there used to piss the big rock people off lol
Dorothy Wills
Wow would be traumatic if you got that amount today, love to have a feed or so of whitebait but haven’t had any for a couple of years now, I prefer coast whitebait has got the best taste
Deb Corich
Wow!
Mike Waghorne
Maybe a bit of a tall story but in the 1950s I heard people in Taylorville claim that 'in the old days' they used to catch so many that they used the excess as fertiliser...
Christine Hogg
Mike Waghorne it's true, my parents spoke of a year like that, just like a thick rope coming up the Hoki River, Grandma's chooks got sick of whitebait and refused to eat them
Brendan Stewart
Mike Waghorne does the bait make it that far and isnt too big too eat from there ?
Sandra Arnott
Big rock best place!
Brian Borgfeldt
Scoop nettimg on the Buller. Lilled the net. Had to bring buckets to net to empty it.
Don McNarn
We had the same in the Buller river
We could fill a kerosene tin in 2 hours. That was in the 40s when most of the adult males were overseas
Brendan Stewart
Choice man ! ..we used to get some good runs by cobden cave
Sheryl Iraia
I remember my father bringing home kerosene tins full of whitebait.
Pauline Webby
True my parents on the Grey River in the early 60's used to fill the old blue kerosene tins full and what was left over used to put on the veg garden
Alva Mundy
I remember going to Cameron’s white baiting with my dad we caught lots then
Saali Marks
Shame they're a bit stuffed now
Sandra Hughes
I remember it being buried in the garden because it was so plentiful you couldn't give it away
Brian Borgfeldt
Sandra Hughes Yep. Dug it in the garden at Kaiata in the 50s.
Wendy Perkins
That’s how much my mum Shirley Perkins would bring home. We gave jars full to the neighbours.Christine Hansen
Yes, I remember the feeding them to the chooks story..
Trevor Wylde
I can remember late 40's early 50's at the bach at Punakaiki if someone suggested whitebait for tea we would checkout the tide and off with net down to Porari River put net in scoop and away home with a feed in.the net. No refrigeration those days so what was required to feed us all was cooked the rest went to cats or dug in garden. Next time you wanted a feed back to river with net.
· Reply · 11h
Shona Ratana
Never saw that amount of whitebait
Rod Berry
My father once told me of my grandfather, would dig heaps of whitebait into the vege garden. The Wanganui River at Hari Hari would run black with the little fish and if you were standing out in the water you would feel them continuously hitting your le… See More
\Jacqui Espinoza
Omg!
Rachel Gibbs
There were a lot of whitebait around then. My great uncles and dad used to get a posy near THE bridge at Westport.
]
Colleen Ming
Back in the 50s my Grandmother always visited us in Christchurch on the train from Greymouth and had many mason jars full of whitebait for us. We had so much that my Mum would fertilize the roses with it. How I miss whitebait in Canada
Margi Adamson
I remember buckets full of whitebait years back.
Mary Molloy
they still get them in spite of DOC saying otherwise - people no longer tell you
Tom Jones
Mary Molloy not wrong about that, plus people shared with there neighbors n friends(wasn't worth much when I started baiting-same as bluff oysters), I love being down the river,good n bad seasons-regardless of the catch
John Webster
Mary Molloy what has DOC got to do with it Mary,I have been away for a long time
Jeff Carter
Good old days
Ann Wilson
Remember my Dad saying they used to catch them by the kerosine tin full ended up digging them in the garden
Tony Warner
I pitched a tent on the rock wall in the middle of the Buller river at high tide the swells would hit the side of the tent and ripple under our mattress we had put black polythene under the mattress so it was water proof and taped it together as the first rays of sun hit the water early morning the whitebait would pour around the tip of the wall the shoals were so wide and long you just fished in the middle of the shoal and trawled as slow as you could and when you pulled the net out of the water they were still coming around the tip of the rock wall back in the late 80s
Trevor Keith Scott
It was a few days ago now when I was looking down on the big Rock Grey Wharf area. The Pensioners were on the rock dragging, when one of them headed across to Pub to go to the toilet. That was when some rough buggers climbed down and kicked the other old fellow off. Now a shunter at the time saw what happened and climbed down, and after an altercation threw the two bad buggers into the river giving the rock back to the Pensioners. I have been trying hard to think of the Maori Shunters name but it eludes me. Anyway those bad buggers wanted white bait so they were amongst them!!!
Sonia Moore
My then boyfriend and I would sleep overnight on Cobden island ready for first light. Get sugar bags full.
Lynnette Walford
Ha ha like on the Mokihinui river ,you had to be careful not to get thrown in,us kids used to run like he'll when we,d hear the owner coming ...
Bruce Macnab
Great memories
Craig Angela Bell
Yep, carry on taking as much as you can. And when there's none left We will wonder why. When are people going to wake up?Angela Anderson
There is no shortage of bait. It comes and goes and all ways has. 100 years ago they were digging it into the ground. The powers that be dont have any prove that there is a shortage. I have seen big runs of bait pass by where we fished, there was no way you could catch as they were on a run heading up to sporn. Of late there have been some great seasons. Fisher people dont talk about what they get. I am happy with what the minister has come up with the changes. Good to see the rest of NZ will come into line with the West Coast Regulations. Would like to have seen the traps taken out of net and the sock net removed but not to be.
Angela Anderson
My Mother caught so much bait this day that she run out of things to put it in. She would say you never caught out. So the hub caps came off the car and they were filled. She fished by placing a net on the river floor like a sheet and cleared a way for the fish to come in. The net was kept down with stones.Mary Hall
My Mum used to whitebait on the Grey River.She used to buckets too.Mum and Dad had the florist shop
Diane Whittle
I so remember how my mum would be up sooo early to try and get the big rock, didn't happen often but yes she did get it, on the odd occasion, best spot be for sure! So, we used to have so much whitebait, fresh and in the freezer, when the next season rolled around, last year's got ditched out of the freezer and the fresher catch went in. Where did the old stuff go? Yup, buried in the garden, to be fair not a lot but still, these days, a nearly criminal act... Sigh life back then ah!
Mandy Bruce
I remember white baiting off the rocks of the grey river near the warf . We use to take the first catch one for my Grandads cat lol imagine do that now wr use to get heaps.
Marie Summers
i got 270lb off the grey thats wen tv3 came to see all the bait that poured up
Toby Symes
I used to whitebait on big Totara river, near Westport
Jim Clark
was always a good plan to stick a flour bag or two in your pocket just in case
Dorothy Wills
Awesome pics!
Sandra Arnott
Yip could runs like that on the grey as well great days way back eh!
Grant Ellingford
Yep I remember 1978 and 79 opposite fisherman wharf, Blaketown on rocks awesome catches also Miil Creek and behind Paroa pub.
Arlene Hutcheon
Yummy!!!
Marlene Jackson Perry
OMG, I remember those times!!
Lynda Lander
Ohhhhhhhh I can still taste whitebait.
Christine Hansen
Mum used to say they had so many in the day they'd feed them to the chooks
C May L'Huillier
Christine Hansen yes chooks gobbled them down quickly
Christine Hansen
C May L'Huillier .. hard to believe there was so many in the day.. and to think they fulled a kerosene tin.. we wish today
Barry Hand
I remember those days, my next door neighbour Fran Clark caught a shoal in the Buller River that filled a kerosene tin and a flour sack and a pillow case. The pillow case burst and all the Whitebait in there made a break for the river.
Reply
Ken Duncan
my great grandfather Bill Bannister once had to sink his row boat to put it all in but then found they couldn't give it all away so put it on garden. in south Westland of course in those days not a lot of people through. we used to get old kerosene tins arrive with a truck on our doorstep in Dunsandel
Roger Sullivan
What's the difference between then and now days
Roger Sullivan
It's there but you just don't hear about it now days
MIcheal Hunt
still can vividly recall my nan in her 70s baiting at rapahoe then the water would come in and she would be waist high or higher in water
Terry MJ
Loved whitebait and pulled a lot out of the Grey over the years but ALWAYS on the Cobden side. Was a bit concerned about the bait on the Grey side which had to swim though what was pouring out of the sewer outlet in Blaketown, no thanks, haha !!!
Dave Newman
1970s? Quad bikes weren't invented till 1982.
Trigger Elvin
Dave Newman '61 in Canada, Suzuki in '82 and Honda in ’86.
Pete King
Dave Newman no quad bike in that pic
Hemi Mason
Yes it was like that on the Arahura river back in the 70s 80s lot off bait about not like that today sad to say
Anne Honey
Just like the old days.Great
29m
ReplyTrevor Taylor
This greed is why the fishery is now so depleted.
Geoffrey King
My father Ron, caught 18 kerosene tins of whitebait early Saturday morning in the early / mid 50's off the stern of the Dolphin, berthed just behind the Melva S, first fishing vessel after the big rock.
Karen Green
Shame people got greedy het
Sandra Arnott
Ha ha I do remember those days eh!
Barbara Barry Gerrard
And I bet you savoured each one
Dave Newman
1970s they didnt have 4 wheelers and Ravensdown didnt have that logo.
Graeme John Hill
Use to go across their at lunch time when i worked at Trumans and Bobs Jean shop.
Phyllis Williams
Oh I remember those days well
Tex Everett
The ones in the gumboots would have had the best flavour. ??
Barbara Barry Gerrard
Heaven in a bucket
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West Coast New Zealand History (6th Nov 2025). Craig Hames with whitebait from the Grey River - by the old wharf.1970`s. In Website West Coast New Zealand History. Retrieved 10th Apr 2026 08:23, from https://westcoast.recollect.co.nz/nodes/view/29500