A rising moon, favourable tides and good weather have combined to help whitebaiters in North Taranaki net enormous catches.

"Over the last four to five days in particular we've been hearing about considerable catches, in excess of 50kg a day," said Shay Fairhurst, owner of Taranaki Hunting and Fishing in New Plymouth.

The days before a full moon were traditionally good for whitebaiting

GRANT MATTHEW/Fairfax NZ Shirley Baker from Waitara with grandsons James Baker, 9, and Carter Jury, 2, inspecting their catch of whitebait from the Waitara River.

"Traditionally leading up to a full moon you get bigger tides, which enable the whitebait to flow up the rivers."

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The season started slowly on August 15, but in the past week tallies had risen considerably, he said

GRANT MATTHEW Andy Wiseman and Bronwyn Hancock from New Plymouth with their dog Bailey, spend Sunday morning whitebaiting at the Oakura River mouth. Andy says he has heard of other fisherman catching up to and over 50kg a day, up and down the Taranaki coast, especially lately because of the king tides.

The Mokau and Awakino Rivers are the region's most productive rivers, but the Waitara and Waiwakaiho Rivers were also yielding some good catches.

Further south, he had heard whitebaiters were getting catches of a kilo or two a day.

Whitebait net sales were another good indication of how well a season was going, and they were selling plenty at present.

ZANE MIRFIN Whitebait fritters are the most popular way to enjoy the fruits of a day out on the riverbank.

Fairhurst said the abundant whitebait boded well for the coming summer fishing, as the tiny fish were popular with sea life as well as people.

"They're an integral part of the food chain, if they are abundant, everything else gets to feed too. We had a pretty good whitebait season last year, followed by a really good summer, lots of sea fish like snapper and tuna were caught.

At Mokau, Whitebait Inn owner Dave Harding said he had been too busy cooking whitebait fritters to get out and catch his own.

GRANT MATTHEW/Fairfax NZ Some of the whitebait caught at Waitara by Shirley Baker and her grandsons on Saturday.

"I've heard stories of up to 50kgs coming in, and I believe they're still getting them at the moment. With the two rivers, Mokau is the whitebait capital of Taranaki."

Good weather made a huge difference to the numbers of people out fishing, although the diehards would be out no matter what, he said.

During the season the small town's population was swelled by people staying in baches and motorhomes.

The whitebait were easy to store frozen, and a lot of people shared them with family and friends.

Whitebait was worth in excess of $100 a kilogram, said Harding, although the price fluctuated with supply so it might drop a bit at present.

How long the run of fish would last was unknown.

"Most seasons we get a good run at some stage, sometimes several good patches, but there's really no 'normal' with it."

His supply, used in fritters that were popular year-round, came from a commercial supplier.

The secret to a good fritter was to use plenty of whitebait and not much else, he said. The only accompaniment needed was a wedge of lemon and some fresh buttered bread.

So far this year, he had not heard of any discord on riverbanks, or people arguing over a favoured possie.

"There's an unofficial protocol, its just good manners really, if you're on someone's stand and they turn up, you leave."