A Timaru man is at wits' end with the rubbish he keeps stumbling across in South Canterbury rivers.

Fisherman Raymond Bransgrove's latest find was in the Waihi River at the Te Awa Rd bridge north of Temuka

He had planned to catch a trout he had spotted last summer but got a nasty surprise when he walked straight into a pile of dead fish, filleted, and dumped in the water to rot on the bank of the river.

About 30 carcasses were still at the spot when The Herald took Mr Bransgrove there yesterday. It was near dusk when he made the grisly discovery on Monday.

"These big white heads were looking at me. I just thought it was really lazy. It's polluting nice water.

"I worry about the rivers and the pollution I've seen. I was quite pleased to see some water in the river and consequently disgusted to see dead fish in it.

"Whoever it is has gone to the effort to catch the fish, fillet the fish and then they've dumped them.

"Why couldn't they just dig a hole?"

Mr Bransgrove highlighted polluted rivers last July when he observed a growing pile of rubbish along the Pareora River.

He first noticed the trash accumulating near Brasells Bridge when he took his children to the spot for fishing and a picnic several months earlier.

There was so much glass and debris that he would not allow his children to go swimming.

He said the rubbish pile had grown within six months to include major appliances, bags of kitchen garbage, televisions, car parts, corrugated iron and household rubbish.

Environment Canterbury ran into a dead end last month investigating the dumping of fish offal at the Opihi River.

The smell of rotting fish alerted summer Waipopo Huts resident Richard Davidson to two separate dumpings of about 100 kilograms of filleted and whole fish dumped near the river mouth.

Environment Canterbury said it would attend problem sites on complaint and relied on the ears and eyes of the public.

Dumping of materials in riverbeds is not a permitted activity under the Resource Management Act.

ECan has the authority to issue infringement notices for relatively minor offences that do not warrant prosecution. When an alleged offence is classified as an infringement, it requires the payment of a fine but without the record of a conviction.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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