Whitebaiters are experiencing an average season, but they are looking forward to this weekend's Festival.
The Great West Coast Whitebait Festival has travelled across the Alps this year.
It gets underway in Cranmer Square in Christchurch this morning.
Event manager Mike Keenan says the whitebaiting looks to have picked up ahead of the event.
"We actually haven't had a very good season on the West Coast because the weather's been very, very bad. Apparently down in Haast on Wednesday (and) Thursday they had some good catches down there."
