Trout fishing season opens tomorrow, with the Bay of Plenty Regional Council urging lake-goers to take care of their gear.
Anglers must ensure they always check, clean and dry their gear before leaving a waterway and moving to a new one to prevent the spread of aquatic pests.
The council's biosecurity manager, Greg Corbett, said all it takes is one person to unwittingly transport a small fragment of weed, a pest fish or its eggs to a new body of water to cause irreversible damage to our lakes.
He said once aquatic pests were established, they were difficult and costly to control, and hard to eradicate.
There are six weed cordons currently in place across the region help to reduce the risk of aquatic pests moving from lake to lake.