Fish & Game insists it's better and much cheaper to get a trout fishing or game bird hunting licence than ending up in court and paying a hefty fine.

A local man was recently fined $700 plus $300 prosecution and court costs in the Rotorua District Court for fishing without a licence at the Awahou Stream mouth earlier this year.

A whole season adult licence costs $133 and can be used every day of the year – making it a very inexpensive recreation.

'If you were to fish every day, the licence fee works out at less than forty cents per day, about one-tenth the cost of a cup of coffee,” says Fish & Game's Anthony van Dorp. Fish & Game also offers less expensive licences for people who just want to give fishing a try he said.

Rangers have been busy throughout the Eastern Fish & Game region with the game bird hunting season in full swing and trout spawning season just beginning.

Compliance for the opening weekend of the game bird hunting season was generally very good but three hunters had firearms seized by rangers.

One was hunting without a licence and two others were using guns with magazines not restricted to two shots.

Potentially they could be fined and have their guns forfeited.

Anthony says trout spawning season was a period when fish were particularly vulnerable to being poached because they congregated in often quite shallow waters.

'In many situations we are able to use hidden cameras to detect offending and this helps us greatly, but we still very much appreciate members of the public keeping an eye on the streams and letting us know if they see anything suspicious.”

Fish & Game's poaching line can be reached anytime by calling 0800 76 22 44 (0800 Poaching)