Birds are for the birds.

[schoolie monster]

I agree and disagree.

I completely agree and admitted in my latest "reports" post that I need to fish more structure rather than spending too much time searching for active fish. And certainly bigger fish are more prone to relate to structure rather than busting bait out in open water.

But where I disagree, is that you can learn from searching for birds. In a couple months, I've found birds in and around the same areas many times which tells me that those fish are resident to that area. I can then refer to my charts and use my graph to locate nearby structure that probably holds those fish when they aren't harassing bait up top.

For someone in their second year fishing from the boat (really first as my alum didn't have much range), this is a great help and a heck of alot of fun. I love getting into a mess of diving birds and busting fish. I get more excited during those few minutes of chaos than fishing structure.

But I know the key to long term consistent success is keying into structure... shelves, rocks, rips, flats, etc. that regularly draw fish in. I also suspect that the topwater blitzes tail off during the summer months and that my focus should shift a bit as the fish spread out a bit.

PS... I talk alot about searching in my report posts 'cause my idea of those posts is to help everyone track locations and movements of fish, not to give away spots. I still fish several areas for their structure whether there are fish up top or not, and when I get fish there, I post the general area. I'm still a fisherman (in other words, I can give info without giving too much info).