Method and species restrictions

Line fishing

• No person may use or be in possession of more than one line (other than handlines or rod and reel lines).
• All surface floats attached to any line must be marked permanently and legibly with the fisher’s initials and surname. A phone number is also useful.
• No person may use or possess a line with more than 25 hooks.
• Where more than one person is using a line from a vessel (other than rod and reel lines), no more than two lines (other than rod and reel lines) may be used, set from or possessed on board that vessel.

General netting restrictions

• No person may set or possess more than one drag net, set net, fyke net, or any other type of net at any one time.
• Nets must be hauled by hand.
• Any net or nets used either individually or jointly must not extend across more than one-quarter of the width of any river, stream, channel, bay or sound.
• No person may set or use a baited net (except fyke nets).
• Nets must not be staked (except fyke nets).
• No net may be used in a way that causes fish to be stranded by the falling tide (stalling).
• Each end of a set net must have a surface float permanently and legibly marked with the fisher’s initials and surname. A phone number is also useful. Only one float is required for fyke nets.

Drag net restrictions

• Drag nets must not exceed 40 metres in length.
• Total warp length must not exceed 200 metres.

Drift net restrictions

Drift netting is prohibited in any part of the Waikato River. A drift net is a net that acts by enmeshing, entrapping, or entangling any fish or marine life, and acts by drifting in the water, or on the surface of the water, and is not attached to a vessel or any point of land or the sea bed.

Set net restrictions

• Only one set net is allowed to be used from, or be on board any vessel. (An additional net is allowed for baitfishing if it is less than 10 metres long and has a meshsize of 50 mm or less).

• Must not exceed 60 metres in length.
• Must not be set within 60 metres of another net.
• Stalling of set nets is prohibited.

Minimum mesh sizes

There are restrictions on net mesh sizes for taking particular species as detailed in the “FINFISH - Bag limits and size restrictions” section. In some cases the minimum mesh sizes for set nets are different from the minimum sizes for other nets such as drag nets.

Protection of spotted black groper

Spotted black groper: no person may take or possess spotted black groper.