# Hunting > Game Cooking and Recipes >  Whitebait Condiments

## R93

Righto what do you buggers like on, or with your whitebait pattie?


I have had a young soldier that I cooked a feed for, smother the patties in tomato sauce. I was horrified, but each to their own.

I was brought up to have a squeeze of lemon and a sprinkle of salt or a dash of mint sauce.

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## Chris

I like thousand island dressing or tartare sauce . I also prefer the fritter made with mashed potatoe as you would for fish cakes(Hewihewi or similar) bit of spring onion & parsley. Makes a little bit of Whitebait go a lot further.

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## R93

> I like thousand island dressing or tartare sauce . I also prefer the fritter made with mashed potatoe as you would for fish cakes(Hewihewi or similar) bit of spring onion & parsley. Makes a little bit of Whitebait go a lot further.




Never really had that problem down here Chris :Thumbsup:  My grandmother used to dig it into the garden. I have just jinxed my season tho eh?

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## sneeze

just a little salt. lemon maybe, mint sauce i couldnt really get into at all. Just made me think of home killed mutton.

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## Neckshot

A touch of curry powder in the egg wash and then salt/pepper and lemon and fresh white bread............heaven!.

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## Rushy

A little salt and pepper and more whitebait fritters!

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## EeeBees

After all that work filleting them :Grin:  , they need only the merest suggestion of salt.  As the great Escoffier said...keep it simple.   It is like Bluff Oysters...why on earth would you do anything, absolutely anything with the glorious things except to savour every atom...

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## Munsey

Fritters fried in pure butter salt and pepper ! . Prefer west coast bait over east coast. Sounds stupid but they do have a different flavor . If I've had a good season and getting board of the flavor mint sauce brings on the taste again .

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## R93

> Fritters fried in pure butter salt and pepper ! . Prefer west coast bait over east coast. Sounds stupid but they do have a different flavor . If I've had a good season and getting board of the flavor mint sauce brings on the taste again .



You know your shit Munsey. They have a different taste from *every* river believe it or not. My favorite is the big strong inunga? from the Arawhata. Hard to stop but man is it good.
Hard to sell as it freezes yellow and puts a lot of people off. Suits me, I dont get much of it so it gets put in the freezer.
Mint sauce has to be tried as well. It works amazingly well with bait. I have snuck it into a few sammies that were raved about from people that hate it.

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## outdoorlad

Salt, pepper, splash of vinegar

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## Chris

> Never really had that problem down here Chris My grandmother used to dig it into the garden. I have just jinxed my season tho eh?


Don't have any shortage now but initially catching the little buggers was a learning curve ,still prefer them with the mashed spud.

Those big strong inunga just bi-catch but good trout or kahawai bait fished on a running rig .
Not illegal in the Wahou to use

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## R93

> Don't have any shortage now but initially catching the little buggers was a learning curve ,still prefer them with the mashed spud.
> 
> Those big strong inunga just bi-catch but good trout or kahawai bait fished on a running rig .
> Not illegal in the Wahou to use


Eh???? Use it as Bait? We cant be talking the same fish? Ours look gold in a shoal and run deep and hard in the current. They dont care how fast it is, faster the better.
Surely not the same fish, it is the best eating bait by far and I have been told the Arawhata is the only place you get it. Not a hundy on that tho as I am sure I have caught it in the Haast.

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## Chris

Probably not the same at all .The main so called White bait that every one want over the Wahou is actually a type of smelt.Has a cucumber like smell about it ,they often have a larger size bait with them(small numbers) that look like baby kahawai.Which is what I thought you where talking bout.Probably twice as big & bloody good bait.
The main run is in the top couple of feet of water which is fine as most guys use scoop nets.I buggered my neck & found the scoop net a real problem so went to a sock net.The advantage is it picks up the real fine bait that runs deeper nearer the bottom,I prefer it to the other bait as is far better eating.It can have a green tinge to it once frozen though.

This is the main variety from the Wahou ,think its actually a type of smelt & not true Whitebait

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## R93

I am with ya Chris. Thats what we call it a cucumber fish down here. It has a gut yes? The big bait I am on about it larger than the rest but not by much and has no gut. It cannot be mistaken for anything but whitebait though.
I am not sure if they are called inunga either. Its just what is used on the river a bit.

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## Chris

Yes it has a gut ,no water in your bucket or they burst. The fine bait I mentioned is what we call inunga ,hes the little guy the climbs up the inside of the bucket . 
I know the Haast stuff I won a couple pound at a shoot ,be twice the size of ours but transparent ,not too bad either.

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## veitnamcam

They are the ones with tiny legs and can wriggel/crawl up the side of the bucket a bit R93? Inunga that is.

I know the larger bait you are reffering to I think, Iv only ever heard them reffered to as "flood bait" as they have no probs swimming up a high river.

I like em one large egg or two small ones to a pound(just enough to hold them together when cooked) with salt and cracked pepper mixed in. Fryed in butter then eaten maybe with a bit of lemon.
 If you need to stretch em out a bit put the patties between two bits of bread :Thumbsup: 

Like scollop's/oysters or any thing out of water they lose 80% of there flavor as soon as they hit the freazer. Still good tho :Thumbsup:

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## R93

> Yes it has a gut ,no water in your bucket or they burst. The fine bait I mentioned is what we call inunga ,hes the little guy the climbs up the inside of the bucket . 
> I know the Haast stuff I won a couple pound at a shoot ,be twice the size of ours but transparent ,not too bad either.


You must have won the shoot for someone to part with that for a prize :Grin:

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## R93

> They are the ones with tiny legs and can wriggel/crawl up the side of the bucket a bit R93? Inunga that is.


Buggered if I seen any whitebait with tiny legs Cam!  

You and Sneeze better stop drinking the water up there or us dirty coasters wont be the only ones sporting extra appendages :Thumbsup:

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## veitnamcam

Put your glasses on!

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## R93

> Put your glasses on!


Are you serious???? I have never seen it or even heard it mentioned. Run bait, late in the season will scale a bucket. I am sure they wriggle their way up, not climb.

I will keep an eye out this season.

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## tui_man2

For a coaster if have to say I hate the shit but that's just me :eek:

Don't mind catching it to give away or sell tho :thumbup:
sent from my Samsung s3 using tapatalk 2

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## veitnamcam

> Are you serious???? I have never seen it or even heard it mentioned. Run bait, late in the season will scale a bucket. I am sure they wriggle their way up, not climb.
> 
> I will keep an eye out this season.


They are actually little wee fins that sort of look like legs and they use them like legs getting up the bucket

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## R93

> They are actually little wee fins that sort of look like legs and they use them like legs getting up the bucket




Oh. Cool, I am with ya now. You can drink the water now. :Psmiley:

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## veitnamcam

I dont drink water, fish do stuff in it  :Yaeh Am Not Durnk:

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## Chris

> You must have won the shoot for someone to part with that for a prize


Think I was shooting OK that day thanks . 

They use the fins up by the head like legs.

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## Bulltahr

I'm keen to try a recipe that doesn't involve eggs, I like my bait patties, but seems a bit of a waste just to overpower them with egg all the time.....
Anybody have a different way of cooking thier bait?

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## veitnamcam

Thats why I use the bare minimum to hold it together.

A mates missus is allergic to egg so they make patties with something? flour I guess Il find out.

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## Chris

> I dont drink water, fish do stuff in it


Free protein I don't see ya problem .  Drink & a fed at the same time .

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## Greyghost

> I'm keen to try a recipe that doesn't involve eggs, I like my bait patties, but seems a bit of a waste just to overpower them with egg all the time.....
> Anybody have a different way of cooking thier bait?


Just in a hot pan with Butter , salt pepper . and a touch of lemon .  Only need a minute or two .

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## petree

i love the the bannter about white baiting every one has differnet idears of what they are.i spent 5 years learning about them and growing them up,they are actualy the juveniles stage  of 5 natvie fish part of the galaxiid family inanga would make up most of the white bait catch then ther are koaro and the are the ones that climb out of ya bucket they are all so known to climb out of the water up waterfalls ,then thers the Banded kokopu  he also climbs but not as good,and shortjaw kokopu is one of the rearest if not the most rear out of the 5 ,and the bigest and have know to get as big as 500mm is the gaint kokopu and hes mostly found on the west cost of the south island,this would explain the different taste i would say,sorry for the banter but i love to spreed the word of these miss understood fish that has no protection so catch only what u can eat,
but back on to the subjet i love it when its st8 out of the water in to a egg and on to a hot plate real butter on the bread and salt mmmmmm.o man cant wait to the river drops and i can start building the stand.

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## R93

> i love the the bannter about white baiting every one has differnet idears of what they are.i spent 5 years learning about them and growing them up,they are actualy the juveniles stage  of 5 natvie fish part of the galaxiid family inanga would make up most of the white bait catch then ther are koaro and the are the ones that climb out of ya bucket they are all so known to climb out of the water up waterfalls ,then thers the Banded kokopu  he also climbs but not as good,and shortjaw kokopu is one of the rearest if not the most rear out of the 5 ,and the bigest and have know to get as big as 500mm is the gaint kokopu and hes mostly found on the west cost of the south island,this would explain the different taste i would say,sorry for the banter but i love to spreed the word of these miss understood fish that has no protection so catch only what u can eat,
> but back on to the subjet i love it when its st8 out of the water in to a egg and on to a hot plate real butter on the bread and salt mmmmmm.o man cant wait to the river drops and i can start building the stand.


Cheers petree. That all good to know mate. I would give out our familys secret recipe but I would be shot on site if I did. 
My late mate Morgan Saxton cooked some of the best patties I ever tasted and he took his secret with him.

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## veitnamcam

Cheers petree :Thumbsup:

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## EeeBees

I do prefer the HB smelts to the local whitebait...alot more flavour...

Petree it is the freshwater flounders that I find fascinating and beautiful...often see them up the local rivers when out with dogs or fishing...really cool!!

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## petree

> I do prefer the HB smelts to the local whitebait...alot more flavour...
> 
> Petree it is the freshwater flounders that I find fascinating and beautiful...often see them up the local rivers when out with dogs or fishing...really cool!!


yer for sure they would be the yellow belly flounder,all the native frash water fish are pretty cool even the ceepy look eels are interesting as in they dont breed in nz but thats a whole new subject,would any1 on here be keen on a exchange on whitebait stands or even a  chance to go whitebaiting with you and ill take you out 1 weekend with me?

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