The Whitebait season opened last Friday 1 October for six weeks, closing on Thursday 11 November. Early reports from the North West indicate that the runs are patchy and the fishing is slow. However Inland Fisheries Inspectors interviewed around 60 whitebaiters over two days and most were happy with the fishing despite the low catch rates. As the weather warms up, the fishing is likely to improve significantly and with five weeks of the season still remaining, this is a good time to buy a licence, prepare your whitebait net and get into the action.

You can buy a whitebait licence for $27.00 at any Service Tasmania or one of the private licence agents listed below.

You have to be over ten years of age to buy a licence and there are strict rules governing where and when you can fish, the amount you can catch and the fishing equipment you can use. It is an offence for a person to have a whitebait net at or near an inland water, unless the person has a whitebait licence and the particular water is open to whitebait fishing at the time.

Whitebait can only be taken between the hours from sunrise to sunset, above the seaward limit in the following rivers, which are open for the 2010 season:

·         Great Forester River

·         River Tamar including Trevallyn Tailrace

·         River Derwent

·         Huon River

·         Rubicon River (except 50 m below the weir)

·         Mersey River (upstream of Frogmore Lane B19)

·         Forth River (except within 100 m below the weir)

·         Inglis River

·         Duck River (except within 50 m below the weir)

·         Montagu River

·         Pieman River

·         Henty River

A maximum daily catch by a licensee is 1 kg. Maximum catch per licence for the season is 10 kg. Maximum quantity that can be held by a licensee at any one time is 10 kg.

The whitebait net must carry a tag showing the number of the licence held by the user. No part of the whitebait net, including the opening, can exceed 120 centimetres in circumference. The net cannot be fitted with a funnel or screen or other device that can impede fish from escaping and must not be fitted with or used in conjunction with any wings or other structures that may divert fish into the net. The licensee must be within 8 m of their net when fishing. The net can be held by hand or tied off to suitable vegetation or staked using a metal or plastic peg only, however, natural vegetation cannot be used as a stake.