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“Hey, mate! Hey, mate! I see some birds!”
That was something Capt. Chris Donato and I used to yell at each other as an exaggerated impression of a fired-up charter guest whenever we’d see birds while trolling off the Kona coast. Even if you don’t know a Bimini twist from a haywire twist, one of the things almost everyone knows is that bird activity means fish.
It doesn’t take a genius to determine a Nat Geo-style feeding frenzy is worth a few passes, but the signs are often more subtle than that. Paying attention to the types of birds you encounter and taking note of their behavior can pay dividends. In today’s sport-fishing industry, most talk revolves around cutting-edge technology, but there’s still no substitute for the good old-fashioned skill of reading your environment.
Fishing for a Living
The birds we encounter offshore have been purpose-built with skills and attributes honed over time to make them perfectly suited for hunting in an offshore environment. We may fish for a living, but seabirds represent a more literal definition of the expression. The most common birds we see, and generally the species that I heard most about in my conversations with other fishermen and scientists, include shearwaters, frigate birds, boobies, terns and petrels. Tropic birds, gulls and pelicans may also provide value in some fisheries.
I spoke with two scientists who specialize in seabird research: Juliet Lamb, an ornithologist with the Nature Conservancy, and Kate Sutherland, a marine biologist who works with Capt. Brian Patteson aboard Stormy Petrel II taking clients on bird-watching and fishing trips off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. Both provided me with a wealth of information on the bird species that sport-fishing boats commonly fish alongside.
These birds are incredible specimens of the bluewater world, spending almost their entire lives plying the deep offshore waters, with many only returning to shore for brief periods to breed and nest. While some seabirds may stay localized, the majority travel tremendous distances, reaching upwards of 1,000 miles in a single day. Although they’re capable of enduring long fasting periods, these opportunistic birds must feed to survive the harsh conditions of the bluewater world. Thanks to their highly adapted senses, seabirds are perfect allies for anglers hunting the same waters.
While it’s no surprise that seabirds have keen vision, tube-nosed birds such as petrels, shearwaters and albatross also have a highly sophisticated sense of smell. According to Lamb, they even recognize their mates and offspring based on their odor signature and can detect these smells at great distances, enhancing their ability to flock with others while searching for food offshore. “These seabirds navigate the ocean like a scent-scape,” Sutherland elaborates. “They can smell underwater features, bathymetry and places that are more productive than others.”
Sutherland explains that birds can smell scent molecules or oils released when baitfish are pushed to the surface or when predators are feeding on them from many miles away. Birds may first be drawn to an area based on the scent of this activity, and then rely on their vision to find the flock or the exact source of the scent once their noses lead them close. Smaller species of petrels, such as the storm petrel, can feed on microscopic plankton and even oil droplets, often indicators of a current edge or the beginnings of action to come.
While species such as tropic birds and frigates can’t dive beneath the surface, many shearwater species routinely dive to 60 feet. The sooty shearwater can reach depths of 200 feet. Distinguishing these species can give you an idea of the depth that baitfish may be holding.
Capt. Bubba Carter is a legend in big-game fishing circles. His success in his adopted home waters off Costa Rica and in other places around the world is second to none. He certainly appreciates the value of the birds that fish around him, having named his 43-foot Island Boatworks Tijereta, the Spanish nickname for the scissor-tailed frigate bird. “We named the boat Tijereta because a circling frigate bird is the best thing in the world,” Carter says. “They are always on the fish.”
Read Next: Interview with Capt. Bubba Carter.
Also known as highfliers for their proficiency at scanning the ocean at high altitude, frigate birds can’t get their feathers wet. If you find frigates circling or making a move for the surface, it’s likely that they’ve found bait being pushed up by predators. They often snatch flying fish mid-flight or steal prey from other birds, earning the name iwa birds, or thief birds in Hawaiian. Frigates will even harass other seabirds until they regurgitate their food. “Frigate birds are what we call kleptoparasites,” Sutherland says. “Even though they can get their own food and often do, a lot of times it’s easier for them to steal from other birds. All of these birds are very opportunistic.”
What to Look For
Among the captains and scientists I spoke to, there was consensus that the most ideal fishing situation you could come across is multiple bird species in a frenzy bombing the water’s surface. Offshore seabirds seize on visual cues from other birds to cover a wider zone and then aggregate when they notice that others have found the fish. Lamb shared that birds will often follow one another seemingly out of curiosity and can find other flocking birds up to five miles away.
“Learning bird behavior will help you tremendously. With experience, you can tell by the birds’ behavior what type of fish they’re working,” says Capt. Ricky Wheeler, who runs his charter boat Euphoria out of New Jersey and has fished many of the world’s billfish hotspots. Wheeler stresses the importance of taking note of the types of birds you’re seeing with depth and how they’re acting to correlate that with what you’re catching. Over time these trends can help you focus on the right flocks for your target species.
Running both birding and fishing trips aboard Stormy Petrel II, Patteson possesses an exceptional eye for birds. He describes sooty terns and large groups, or beehives, of shearwaters as among the most important off Hatteras for both tuna and billfish. He likes to see these birds focused on one area and landing on the water. Out in deep waters over 100 fathoms, he’s found that birds tend to work toward the south into the Gulf Stream current. And while sitting birds can sometimes mean you’re late to the party, Patteson suggests that they can still be a promising sign. “If you come across a group of birds rafted up on the water, you don’t want to ignore that,” he says. “These birds are opportunistic, and if the bait isn’t at a depth they can get to, they won’t be actively feeding. But it doesn’t mean you’re not in the right spot.”
Ninety percent of the time, Carter looks for blue-footed boobies and gets excited when he finds them pounding the water on bait. “The boobies will work on porpoise schools, but if they’re working on bait and sailfish are cutting through, then it’s bonanza fishing,” Carter says. “If they’re just buzzing around and working up-current, you see which way they’re working and just stay with them. Years ago, all you had to do was go from bird bunch to bird bunch. You didn’t need sonar or anything, just the birds. But it hasn’t been that way the last few years here.”
The small storm petrels are another favorite of Carter’s when sailfishing. “We call the little black petrels chickens,” Carter says, “and they’ll be walking on the water where the sailfish are too. A lot of times they’re ‘over there’ birds, moving super fast and hard to catch up with. But if they stop and start walking on the water, especially in a slick, you want to be there.”
Even a few birds can lead you in the right direction. Seeing a few boobies perched on the surface in the distance can turn out to be a floating log or debris that can hold pelagics. Birds can also be an indicator of productive weed lines, picking away at creatures hiding in the grass. “I’ve had it where you see a couple lonely frigates that aren’t really high but look like they’re following something around,” Wheeler says. “By the time you get there, you see it’s either a tailing blue marlin or a little pack of sailfish cruising around.”
Expand Your Horizons
Even if birds aren’t visible to the naked eye, radar and binoculars can expand your search area. Many modern radars are equipped with a bird mode that’s designed specifically for that purpose. You may have to tweak the gain and range settings a bit, depending on the radar model and the conditions. Rougher seas make birds harder to spot and more difficult for the radar to pick up, so your range will be affected.
Carter uses a 25 kW radar on Tijereta to find birds, typically zooming in to about six miles. He picks them up well at about three to four miles most days. In good conditions, he can expand to eight miles and mark seabirds at seven, but you must be on top of your radar and its settings at this range.
Glassing with binoculars is another skill that great captains utilize, and many even prefer it to chasing radar pings. Binoculars with gyrostabilization can be game changers when spotting birds in a rolling sea at distances of 2 to 3 miles. In clear conditions, you can expect to spot flocks even farther. Companies such as Fraser-Volpe and Fujinon produce some of the most popular brands of stabilized binoculars.
If shelling out thousands for a set of gyro-binos isn’t a practical option, a good $200 pair of waterproof 7×50 standard binoculars can get the job done. “The basic binoculars I use have accounted for us catching fish on a lot of days,” Wheeler says. “I like the ones that have the compass in them, so even if there’s a little chop and you see something, you can note the heading and then put your boat right on it.” Using binoculars to zoom in and view bird behavior can help you decide if chasing them down is worth the effort.
So you’ve found a promising group of birds. Now you’ve got to fish them. I’ve caught billfish anywhere from right on the bait ball to over a mile away. Blue marlin hang well outside the bait at times, so being on top doesn’t mean an automatic bite. “Before we had omnidirectional sonar, we used to see which way the bird pile was moving and get in front of or behind the bird piles,” Carter says. “The tuna would usually be in front of the birds, and the billfish would typically be behind, so we’d get behind them. With sonar it’s a lot easier to find and track where the billfish are in relation to the birds and bait.” It’s often more difficult to tell how far you are from the bait ball with a standard up-and-down sonar, so in that case, you have to let the birds be your guide.
Using birds to find fish is one of the most primitive skills in our sport, but that doesn’t mean you can’t improve your approach. Becoming better acquainted with the common bird species in your area and keeping track of their behavior along with what you catch can help you take fishing birds to the next level. Like many of us in this business, seabirds are more comfortable on the ocean than they are on land, so utilizing their fishing skills can simultaneously better yours.
