BLOG: Keeping a bird's eye view

MUCH has been written about using birds to help in finding fish, in particularly feeding fish on the surface.

Good skippers can tell the different characteristics of birds and which birds are likely to lead them to fish. Others birds tend not to be as useful. I don't have that sort of in-depth knowledge but a skipper worth his salt can read them like a book. Also, mannerisms of the birds can tell us when the fish are frenzied; the obvious signpost is when they are diving head first into the water picking up scraps as they go, or when they are just milling around on the surface following a school of fish ready to feed. Birds will circle and hang in an area waiting to capitalise on an easy meal.

Unlike in offshore situations, in the estuaries bird activity seems to be less publicised. The predominant estuary species are seagulls, terns and pelicans and in my opinion, some are better allies than others. Gulls tend to be less helpful unless worth they are on the job. Terns though have become my best friends. They are active birds and far more predictable. If you find a few on the horizon it's worth chasing them down as sooner or later they will lead you to fish.

The good news is they are literally everywhere you look in inshore and enclosed waters and most fishos will to idle past them unless the birds are actively feeding on the surface. Then most will stop for a quick investigation.

Over the past few months the Hawkesbury River has had an abnormal amount of surface feeding birds, primarily due to tailor and this has led to some interesting discoveries. One particular session we could see a flock of birds actively working the surface off in the distance and made the prognosis that it was due to tailor. Dad and I watched the activity for more than an hour till it died down. We were keen to head over and investigate but we were after shallow water kings and we didn't want to miss the prime time dawn bite we get in shallow water just to catch tailor.

After a while no kings came up so we decided to go and check out the birds. We had a quick flick to see if any predators were still in the area, but I wasn't too convinced. The birds stopped diving at this stage and were just sitting on the surface milling about. A few ripping retrieves produced nothing so I decided to sink a plastic to the bottom. It was a smart decision because from this point it was mayhem. The ensuing hour saw one of the hottest flathead bites we've had in quite a while. Now this might not sound too interesting a result as flatties are seen as a beginner's sportfish, but a few factors were highlighted that drove home a very important point - it's not always working birds that can lead you to fish.

First off, we discovered the flatties as far away from any discernable structure as possible. They were in the middle of Broken Bay in an area considered a barren wasteland of sand and stuff all else. Secondly, the tide was contradictory to prime flatty time in the bay as we usually fish run out tides for flatties however the fish were aggressive and ready to play ball. And lastly, the flatties were obviously drawn to the area by feeding schools of fish. Most coughed out whitebait so fresh you could have re-used them as bait.

Did the flatties sense the commotion and come in for a feed? Where they just in the right spot at the right time? If they only came in for an opportunistic feed, why didn't they retreat back to their regular hide-outs closer to structure once the melee died down? These questions are difficult to answer, however, they were in a place I would have driven over a million times before I stopped to fish it.

Most fishos, if they missed seeing the initial feeding action of the seagulls and only managed to catch the birds sitting on top of the water, would just drive by admiring the wildlife without a thought to stop and investigate. Often the opportunity would be missed. Now I tend to stop and put in a few exploratory casts before I move on and invariably inactive birds have led me to catch good fish in locations that defy logic.

I guess the key here is giving birds more attention, not just working birds but birds stationary and waiting to feed. Don't assume that sedentary birds are poor allies. They can see and sense more than we hope to ever understand about our fishery. Use them...even if nothing obvious stands out.

Which birds do you rely on to lead you to fish?