By Frank Sargeant
I’d probably watch birds when I fish even if they weren’t trying to tell me something.
But that fact that they are practically shouting “FISH HERE” at times definitely makes me pay more attention.
Their hints can be as obvious as a flock of gulls or pelicans diving on bait—where there can be no question that there are mackerel and bonito below driving the bait to the surface—to the much more subtle circling of an osprey eyeing a couple of shad finning on top, a possible hint of largemouths below.
Great blue herons are always tall, gangly signposts of bait or panfish in both fresh and salt water. (By the way, has anybody else noticed that the great blues on the coast seem to be bigger than the ones inland? Or is it just my imagination?)
In any case, where you see the big herons hunting killifish and finger mullet on the coast, there are likely to be trout and redfish close by. And on freshwater lakes, they’re indicators that bluegills or shad that are also the right size to attract bass are abundant.
In my part of the country—northeast Alabama--loons show up in late fall and early winter and are great at locating shad schools. Fish where a loon pops up from a dive and you can bet there are baitfish below. (Be careful about using live bait around them, though—they’ll eat a shad on a hook as quickly as will a bass or catfish, and loons are a federally protected species.)
Even birds as small as kingfishers—little birds with big voices—can hint at a fishy bonanza below. Kingfishers let you know where they’re diving with their piercing chatter. They target mostly fry-sized bait, be it baby bluegills, silversides or shad, but where they dive you know there’s fish food below.
On the coast, brown pelicans are great fish finders—and the way they dive can tell you what bait they’re eating as well as what gamefish are likely nearby. If they’re shallow diving, or not diving at all but simply scooping bait up at the surface, they’re in fry bait, baby sardines, menhaden, or other juvenile baits. These are often markers for where Spanish mackerel, sea trout and bullet bonito are hanging out.
If they’re plunge diving, going completely below the surface, they’re probably eating adult menhaden, cigar minnows or shad, and there are likely to be larger predators close to them—bull redfish, tarpon or maybe king mackerel.
While gulls are primarily seen as coastal birds, in late fall a lot of them gather on the shad-filled lakes of the southeast to wait out the northern winters. And they’re great at finding schools of bass busting shad, starting about late August and continuing to Thanksgiving most years.
Where you see a white tornado of gulls whirling, you can be sure there are feeding largemouths below—just flip a rattlebait, spoon or even a topwater out there and hang on.
Catch and Release for Birds
Fishing close to intense bird activity requires anglers to exercise extra care to avoid hooking one of the feathered fish-finders. Unfortunately, if you regularly use birds as fishy bird dogs, you’ll eventually get one tangled in your line or your hooks. You owe it to them to handle them humanely and release them unharmed.
The big trick in handling birds is to get their eyes covered as quickly as possible—a wet hand-towel is best for this, both keeping the bird cool and calming it down. Covering the eyes is also an essential safety measure with larger birds like herons and pelicans, which can put up a serious fight when handled. A large landing net placed over the bird is another way to control them.
Gulls and terns sometimes fly into the line, and releasing them is simply a matter of unwrapping the line from around the base of a wing.
Cormorants and loons, on the other hand, sometimes grab the lure or bait, and have to be unhooked. Best way to do this is the same as with a hooked human—with strong nippers, cut off the barb of the hook, then back it out. (If you’re a serious angler, you need a pair of powerful hook cutters on board anyway, because sooner or later a fishing companion is going to get hooked badly enough that you’ll need them.)
Most sea birds are protected species as well as acting as our feathered friends, so treat them carefully and release them with as little harm as possible to get back to fish finding.
Frank Sargeant
Frankmako1@gmail.com