The Wairoa River is abuzz with activity today as keen fishers take to the banks for the start of the official whitebait season.

Donned in gumboots and overalls the 20-year whitebait veteran Glennis Walters was one of the first to take a spot.

Glennis Walters's whitebaiting in the Wairoa River. Photo: Bruce Barnard.

'I have been on the water all day and have got many. The water is a bit dirty, which makes it a bit hard to see.

'I got a few shoals earlier this morning but it has gone dead again. It should pick up again later.”

The peace and tranquillity of the Wairoa is what attracts the Tauranga resident.

'I have been doing this for 20 years and whitebait on Thornton River a lot. I started in Pukehina and shift out here and now fish the Wairoa River.”

'It's lovely and peaceful and you're not close to people that want to cause strife.

'There are people at Thornton who try to push you out when you start catching whitebait.

You get some strange ones.

'I come here to relax and you get to see people who you haven't seen for a year or since the last whitebait season.”

The official whitebait season runs from today until November 30 and includes all areas in New Zealand except the West Coast of the South Island and the Chatham Islands.

In the Chatham Islands the season runs between December 1 until the last day in February and in the West Coast of the South Island it starts on September 1 through to November 14.

Department of Conservation reminds people planning on whitebaiting to clean, check and dry their gear between fishing to prevent the spread of didymo and other freshwater pests.

According toDOC regulations, whitebait nets must have a mouth no larger than 4.5m [measured around the inside of the net frame] and framing material no wider than 120m.

Drag nets must be no taller than 1 m and be flat when laid on a surface. Both whitebait nets and dragnets must be no more than 3.5m in length.

No fishing gear shall exceed more than one-third of the water channel width, be used in conjunction with another person's gear to exceed more than one-third of the channel width and exceed 6 m in total length.

Only one whitebait net is allowed to be used by one whitebaiter at a time.