The story of the discovery of New Zealand's freshwater fishes and the development of research on both the indigenous fauna and the exotic fauna that support most recreational fisheries in New Zealand is traced. It forms the background to a more substantive account of the processes that took place over the past 25 years in the development of research, the projects that were undertaken, and the key people involved in these events. This 25‐year period, which equates with the life of theNew Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research, is notable for the following fields of activity: a significant flowering of interest and knowledge of the hitherto poorly known indigenous fauna; the application of the in‐stream flow incremental methodology; increased research on eels prompted by the development of a commercial wild eel fishery; major investment in research on chinook salmon populations leading to the development of salmon aquaculture research and technologies; problems with the commercial capture of salmon at sea; proliferation of major environmental impact studies that were provoked by heavy pressure for exploitation of New Zealand's rivers for irrigation and hydroelectricity; research on the use of large herbivorous Asiatic carps for biological control of excessive growth of aquatic macrophytes and plankton blooms; and concerns about the impacts of exotic fishes on the indigenous fauna