Using sea life to find fish

Writer Peter ‘PJ’ Jones considers the various seabirds and dolphins to be his friends – and valuable informants.

I’m not one of the anthropomorphic tourists who thinks that dolphins leaping and whirling in the sea are just playing for our entertainment. They’ve got to ‘make a living’, too, and it can be a bloody tough one. So instead, I try to interpret their behaviour.

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I started thinking seriously about this one day when I saw a pod swimming around in a tight circle, with one disappearing underwater and emerging, a few seconds later, munching.

The location was in 12m of water just off a rocky point, where there are always lots of squid that chow down on my soft-baits. So, I went and did some research, and yes, like everything else in the sea, dolphins love to eat squid. Gotcha. They were herding squid.

Consequently, I now watch what they’re doing. I wonder sometimes if they’re watching me, too; one day at the Rimarikis, I was absolutely certain a pod of dolphins were driving snapper to me.

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My own observations are as follows: if obviously in a work-up situation, but just ducking and diving in one area, they’re probably chasing snapper and porae; if moving a bit faster in one direction, they’re chasing a baitfish school, trevally or kahawai (especially kahawai if terns are in attendance).

Now for the birds. The bigger ones, such as gannets, occupy a similar food-chain level as the fish we target. In other words, they’re after the baitfish that the snapper, kingies and kahawai are after, too. Kahawai and snapper are a bit of a crossover here.

The terns, petrels and such, are one level down and they feed on the smaller baitfish, such as inanga and anchovies, with kahawai often feeding on them as well, along with Brydes whales. And so it goes on down the food chain.

Work-ups are not random events; often they are initiated by the presence of krill concentrations, which attract various baitfish, and these, in turn, are eaten by bigger fish – a great example of the food chain in action.

Another reason for schooling up is to breed, but as breeding fish need energy, they often do so somewhere near a decent food source. Unlike salmon, it appears that snapper and most other marine fishes don’t cease feeding in breeding times. Note also that snapper spawn several times over an average summer.

Diving gannets are an obvious clue – the more the merrier. They’re after baitfish driven up by fishy predators. Gannets sitting on the water in groups have ceased fishing and are likely digesting their catch or waiting for another opportunity. However, snapper will likely still be below them – one of my mates calls snapper ‘poo eaters’ for this reason.

Next aspect, and this might not be so easy for a kayaker, depending on the launching site: gannets fly from their rookeries early morning to feed, and return in the evening. When you see a group of them flying in a line, that’s what they’re doing. So, in the morning, go to where they’re going; in the evening, go to where they’re coming from.

Gannets are sight hunters that look into the water – they can’t hunt in the dark (exception: very bright moonlight and phosphorescence, but I’ve only ever seen that once, at Surfdale on Waiheke Island about 15 years ago).

As for gannets circling in the air, but not diving: there’s something down there, but too deep for them to dive down to yet, so have a go anyway or wait for the situation to develop further.

Terns, or ‘kahawai birds’ feed on the same little fish that kahawai often do. Dainty, wee white birds, they flit around in groups, just dancing across the water. You will catch kahawai under them, but they move around fast; if you’re chasing the kahawai and your bait’s too big, forget it.

However, there will often be big snapper and kingies way down deeper under terns or, rather, under the kahawai. They might be after the kahawai or the scraps. So if you catch a small to medium kahawai, put it down with a sinker as a deep live bait for kingfish. (Tip: to make it swim down, cut off the tail’s bottom fluke; to make it swim up, cut off the top fluke.)

Sooty shearwaters and terns working together and shallow diving without really splashing in, usually indicate kahawai feeding on inanga-sized baitfish, little anchovies and the like.

Maomao schools feeding on the surface often attract petrels. The maomao will usually be chomping krill, as will the petrels. Sometimes there’s something underneath, often kingies, but more often sharks. I always have a hard time in this situation. A lure trolled around the edges often offers the best chance.

Gulls. At times gulls indicate where something is feeding in the water, but more usually they’re just doing their own scavenging and, in my opinion, are not particularly useful to anglers.

Final aspect: use all your own senses, particularly sight – obviously. Keep scanning the sky for birds flying in one direction, circling around, and diving – but also observe just how they’re circling around and diving. Single gannets will often fly big circles in the sky, but that may not help you because it’s just prospecting. Two or three gannets? Yes, something there, but a bit deep for them to dive on, and gannets can go a long way down. In this situation, there are usually baitfish present, but no bigger predators harrying them, so not much for us to catch, either.

Gannets in groups, whatever they’re doing – go for it – even clumps of gannets sitting on the water, as you’ll often find snapper underneath, most often downcurrent a bit from them.

Another visual giveaway, which you’ll often see for surprising lengths of time after a work-up has dissipated, is the sheen of oil and little scales in and on the water. You’ll often find snapper, kahawai and curious kingfish wandering around cleaning up the scraps.

Which brings me to smell – yes, believe it! You can smell fish oil and fish during work-ups, specially where you’re close to the water and have no engine exhaust/oil to mask the smell. Snapper have a distinctive grassy smell that you can pick up after dolphins have been eating them.

And sound. Schooling fish at the surface make a continuous breaking-wave sound that travels quite a long way. Also, birds communicate with each other when feeding or looking for a feed, and the ‘thock’ of a gannet hitting the water’s another sound that carries from quite a distance. Consider such sounds as an invitation to the party.

   This article is reproduced with permission of   
New Zealand Fishing News

February 2018 - Peter Jones
Re-publishing elsewhere is prohibited

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