Fishing around birds

[MikeTLive]

This morning on the ride to work I passed a beautiful sight.
About 20 Cormorants and a flock of terns all feasting on baitfish.
I watched for a while as what I presume to be stripers churned the water sending the baitfish flailing for the terns to snag from above while the cormorants snagged from below.

It was hard to return to the truck to continue my commute

How should one fish when the bait is plentiful and the birds are all around?

-miket

[dougie v]

Toss a 6" Storm shad into or past the blitz. Pause for a moment and reel it in. This will work great if the razor toothed critters aren't around! but this is just one of many ways....

[JohnR]

Do not cast the small storms or you'll catch a bird... What you want to do is to quickly get below them. The only thing worse than catching a commorant is catching a Gannet. Seagulls pale by comparison...

[KJLane]

give whatever jig you're fishing a 5-10 second countdown after it hits the water. A lot of the time that can get you below to the schoolies and into larger fish.

[MikeTLive]

other than 6" storms any other suggestions?

What about fishing the leading edge of the insanity?
They were moving down the beach at a slow enough pace that I could get out infront and wait for them to get to me.

Then once they worked past I could scoot on down ahead of them playing fish-leapfrog

[redlite]

I have several large bird catches to my credit, the most recent being a comorant, and they are nasty, I think worse than any seagull I have caught. They are quicker and their beaks are a lot sharper. As for chasing breaking fish, I know it is hard to resist the impulse to keep chasing them, but from a piece of advice I got from someone that I found hard to believe and do, but wait. A lot of times there are bigger fish that trail the smaller fish picking up the scraps, especially after blue fish blitzes. And another word of advice. When chasing the breaking fish and playing leapfrog, make sure your truck is in park before you jump out and grab a rod to run down to the water. Almost got hit last summer by a guy who forgot to as his truck rolled by narrowly missing mine.

[Christian]

why not use a popper? i love em, they dont really catch the biggest fish but they get their share, just dont cast into the middle of the school and you can pick off the large on the outside. a big popper also helps put away the little fish. ive fished many a school of boiling fish with poppers, plastic, swimmers, and i have never hooked a gull or other bird. ive had them chase the lure but i pull it out of the way in time. you do have to pull it in fast though, i havent had to deal with gannets diving on my plug either, those things are wicked fast.

[redlite]

The problem really isn't cathcing them. They just have a tendancy during the melieu to fly through my line, pull the line to the plug, and sink my plug into their wing. Crash and burn.

[Gloucester2]

me said "melieu"

[Plug]

determine the direction the school is moving and fish behind them where they have been.

if they are stationary fish downcurrent