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guys, spring and summer arrives and baitfish are plentyful,if there were bird activity...which ones would you bank on that there were bass around.cheers daz.
birds
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Hi darren.
Turns and gannets are the norm to give away bait fish ..erratic up and down motions from turns & gannets smashing into the baitfish
Depends wether you get gannets your way , some gull activity may help
Turns and gannets are the norm to give away bait fish ..erratic up and down motions from turns & gannets smashing into the baitfish
Depends wether you get gannets your way , some gull activity may help
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terns.
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hi bob,glad your well again mate.yep we get gannets up here but there mainly diving far out.deffo terns keith and gulls..well it can mean anything..bloody sea crows!
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just another question,we get porpoise up here in summer,sometimes very close in.what are they following?
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Agree with everything said so far. Don't right off gulls though.
1. When it goes off really mad on the surface the gulls will join in and any greater or lesser black backed in the area will be right in there. I don't see that as often as I used to, unfortunately.
2. If I ever see a group of gulls sitting on the water (even with no sign of fish on the surface), I always check out what is underneath them. This has found me some fish that no amount of electronics would have picked up.
Gull activity may be localised to some extent though. In north west France there are large resident black backed gull colonies feeding in tidal rip areas (eg Raz du Sein). I haven't seen anything like that around Jersey.
Cheers
P
1. When it goes off really mad on the surface the gulls will join in and any greater or lesser black backed in the area will be right in there. I don't see that as often as I used to, unfortunately.
2. If I ever see a group of gulls sitting on the water (even with no sign of fish on the surface), I always check out what is underneath them. This has found me some fish that no amount of electronics would have picked up.
Gull activity may be localised to some extent though. In north west France there are large resident black backed gull colonies feeding in tidal rip areas (eg Raz du Sein). I haven't seen anything like that around Jersey.
Cheers
P
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Ah, but did you catch any more fish Chris ?The Squid said:I saw a bird (44--36--44) dive in the water last year, so I dived in after her
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Saw Chris coming and thought it was a walrus............. :aarrg:
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Terns. I asked the same question to my french lure guru, he said if you see terns diving there is bass there, without a doubt. Gannets can be miss leading he said, so dont chase after them. I have often wondered why gulls sit on the surface in groups, when I was in Belle Ile I was driving along the coast road with Yannick and Stanley, we saw a bunch of gulls on the surface and Yannick asked me why they did this, I said I was about to ask him the same. Its weird that alot of us wonder why the herring gulls do this. I know when I used to snorkel alot that you do pass through warm areas of water, I often wondered if its just the gulls have found somewhere warmer to park their bums??
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Quoting from the guided sessions I have had from Justin Anwyl - he uses the birds as one of his main tracking / locating methods for roaming bass in Chi Harbour;
Terns either diving or sitting on the water - even if they don't look like they aren't doing much sitting around they are usually waiting for the bass to drive up the baitfish and will sit on top of a bass shoal - Terns are the best bass locators by far! (the Terns will sit and flap their wings to reposition themselves on top of the water - they are usually feeding and you can spot em a mile away!)(PS my descriptions are crap - its alot better seeing them in action!)
Normal gulls - are very very lazy and crap as an indicator - I guess unless its busting up so much its unmistakeable!
Terns either diving or sitting on the water - even if they don't look like they aren't doing much sitting around they are usually waiting for the bass to drive up the baitfish and will sit on top of a bass shoal - Terns are the best bass locators by far! (the Terns will sit and flap their wings to reposition themselves on top of the water - they are usually feeding and you can spot em a mile away!)(PS my descriptions are crap - its alot better seeing them in action!)
Normal gulls - are very very lazy and crap as an indicator - I guess unless its busting up so much its unmistakeable!
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Mick, I am pretty sure they are doing what Alex says terns do in his later post. Waiting for it to kick off. Now you gave got a sounder go and check out a few of the sitting groups and what is underneath them. Quite often there is an underwater feature of sorts down there and where there's structure...mrfishjersey said:
I am also pretty sure that gull (and tern) behaviour is dependent on location. Granted, gulls aren't as skilful at diving for small fish as terns, but a tern will mob a small sandeel in 1ft of water for 10 minutes, just for a mouthful. Where I see them do that you won't find any bass until about 2 hours later, I know that for absolute sure from diving, fishing and low water fishing the area for over 30 years. I even used to "share" the same nourrices as them as I hung on to take a breather from finning against current and they watched from a corner post between sorties.
What I am saying I suppose is that you can watch feeding terns cover a huge amount of ground screeching and diving, for not much reward. You are welcome to chase them if thats your bag but out of a gull and a tern, which bird is waiting for the biggest easiest meal??
Don't get me wrong, I love the little things. When we had the visibility problems (colloidal mud) a couple of seasons ago the poor beggars were attacking lures right up to the rod tip and even as they were being lifted to be cast. Poor little sods were dying of hunger, literally.
If I thought porpoises were chasing bass I'd follow them too (from a mammal friendly distance of course).
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Chi Harbour and Hayling Island it is relatively still common to see large flocks of terns atacking the baitfish - had a morning in Sep where they covered about the size of a football field ... unfortunately about 300mtrs offshore so I sat and watched ... water is generally clear in the estuary and between 4 - 20ft deep
I will be chasing them like a loon on my kayak when it warms up a bit!
I will be chasing them like a loon on my kayak when it warms up a bit!
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Gulls are lazy feeders and will wait for other birds to find them bait fish and then join the feeding
got to remember there eye sight is a 100 times better than ours so any activity on the water will be spoted from miles away
im not sure if this is 100% right but sure i seen something about this on a BBC nature program
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All birds that are active are an indication of events imo (unless theyre resting) - it doesnt just have to be bait fish - look for oyster catchers or sand pipers & youll find what the bass might be feeding on - birds on their way inland? a blow on the way? - good fishing after?
anyway Ive been drinking
anyway Ive been drinking
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(44--36--44) ?
That was a big old bird wasn't it?!??! We get terns and gulls here. Always worth a look if they are 'en masse'.
That was a big old bird wasn't it?!??! We get terns and gulls here. Always worth a look if they are 'en masse'.
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