Bird Watching For Stripers

[Gerry Zagorski]

As the fall wears on it’s time to start jigging for Stripers. It’s usually a run and gun Fishery.. Baitfish pop up, birds are on them, you run over make a few casts, birds move on and so do you. Trick here is to follow the right birds.

It’s been my experience that most of the time the smallerbirds like Turns will lead you to Bluefish, usually the smaller cocktail blues….If you are after Stripers, larger birds like Gulls and especially Gannets will lead you to them. So a few tips on bird watching….

If they are around, Gannets are a sure fire sign that larger baits like Bunker and Herring are around. Unlike Gulls and Terns, these birdswill stay up high and when they see something they will tuck their wings in and go straight down into a high speed dive. Once in the water they will swim several feet down chasing the baits. Here is a cool video on how they fish http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icojXDWxlQs

Gulls also tend to stay up a little higher but will usually dip,rather than dive to feed on bait.

Turns are much smaller birds and are usually fishing for smaller bait. From a distance you can usually tell turns from gulls because Turns flap their wings a lot more rapidly and don’t usually glide or soar like Gulls.

Find the right birds and you’ll find the right fish.

Now let’s talk about some common sense and etiquette when fishing birds.

First of all never run into an actively feeding flock of birds. All you are going to do is spoil the fishing for yourself and everyone else trying to fish them by sending the bait down. It’s always best to try and judge their movement and put your boat in their path or stay outside them and cast into them.

When you see birds feeding it’s usually the tip of the iceberg and there is a much larger concentration of bait fish underneath them. Edges are the best place to cast because that is where the larger and somewhat lazier fish will be. Often times it’s the smaller fish that will aggressively chase the bait and the larger ones will lay on the edges or on the bottom feeding on the aftermath.

Not always the case but the general rule is not to cast and immediately reel, you want to let your jigs sink before you start working them.Once again, bigger fish and the ones you are after are usually down underneath the more aggressive smaller fish.

If birds are around it will help you locate the fish buts ometimes they are not, especially when the fish are deep and not pushing bait up. In this case it’s best to rely on your fish finder. What you are going to see are multiple red blobs on your sounde rand in this case straight up and down vertical jigging is best.

Can't wait for the fall run... Catchem up guys.