Eyes in the sky

Seabirds are our friends. With the advantage of height, excellent vision and often an acute sense of smell too, species like gannets can find feeding fish from many miles away. Following the birds can lead us to good fishing.

Many species of seabird feed on fish, usually small bait fish, but also squid and krill. Baitfish may be tiny – often the fry of many fish species – or relatively large, such as mackerel. Large diving birds like gannets prefer larger food items such as pilchards and various mackerels (which may themselves be feeding on smaller fishes), while terns and smaller shearwater species prefer much smaller prey.

By noting which bird species are present and observing their feeding behaviour, we can often tell what sort of fish are lurking below the water’s surface and determine how best to catch them.

Gannets feed singly or in large groups depending on the food source. In work-ups where fish and/or marine mammals have forced schooling bait fish to the surface, gannets can gather in their thousands to feed, often forming huge, wheeling columns high above the work-up. The birds dive on unfortunate bait fish from above, but rely on predators in the water to force the bait to the surface. Columns of gannets can be seen from miles away and are always worth investigating.

Gannets feed individually or in loose flocks, patrolling bays and inshore waters seeking bait such as mackerel, piper and mullet. They prefer bigger prey items over smaller ones, though they sometimes dive on anchovies, perhaps gulping down several at once.

Gannets in feeding mode are a sure sign predatory fish are about, so it’s worth fishing in an area where birds are present. This is true even if the gannets are fairly spread out rather than concentrated in a work-up. The predatory fish that are forcing the bait to the surface or feeding on the ‘outfall’ from the feeding activity of mammals, birds and fish, will readily take lures as well as natural baits of approximately the same size and shape as the prey species. Soft plastics and metal jigs work especially well.

SHEARWATERS

There are dozens of species of ‘tube-noses’ – shearwaters, petrels and prions – in New Zealand waters. All of them feed on small fish, squid and krill.

The most common inshore species include sooty shearwaters, flesh-footed and Bullers shearwaters, the North Island little

which also happen to be among the favourite prey species for kahawai, but terns will also hover over feeding skipjack and albacore tuna, slimy and jack mackerels, barracouta or any other predatory species that forces small fish to the surface.

In many parts of the country feeding kahawai are shadowed by other fish like snapper, which eat any dead or dying bait fish the kahawai miss, as well as contributing to the feeding frenzy in their own right, and sometimes kingfish, which may in fact be more interested in the kahawai or mackerel than they are in tiny bait fish. Either way, it can be worth tossing about a larger topwater lure, soft bait or jig to entice a shadowing kingfish.

For snapper fishers, terns may not be the sure-fire bet that gannets are, but wheeling, diving terns are certainly worth a few casts, especially around the peripheries of the action. I have caught many a good snapper from among feeding terns.

SHAGS

Shags are mostly inshore predators that dive and actively pursue their prey under water. The relatively large and common pied and black shags are primarily marine species; many smaller shags favour estuarine and freshwater environments.

Shags generally hunt in relatively shallow water. Although they can dive to 25 metres plus and stay underwater for a minute or more, they seem to prefer 10 metres of water or less. Shags are both solitary and cooperative hunters.

Groups of shags can often be seen working together to trap schools of fish against structure. When they are feeding in this fashion, there are almost certainly other predators targeting the bait as well, so it’s well worth fishing in the vicinity.