Gannets

I can't resist another blog about last weekend's mid-Bay fishing expedition. Although we had a rough idea of where the migratory rockfish might be, we had some help pinpointing them. More visible than marks on a fish finder and probably better at identifying subsurface bait schools, we followed the gannets. Gannets are relatively large migratory birds, somewhat bigger than a seagull with a wingspan of up to 6 feet. They have dazzling white feathers with black tipped wings. They only visit the Chesapeake in winter and spring. Gannets appear very aerodynamic and look extremely graceful in flight. Because of their size, they searh for big baitfish to eat. Not suprisingly, so do trophy rockfish. Sometimes gannets hunt independently and other times in flocks. Gliding just above the waves until they spot their query, they climb straight up, reaching heights of 200 feet or more, then dive straight back into the water like a missle. One of the guys told me that expert fishermen could guage their trolling depth by how high the birds climb or how long they stay under the water. He also told of gannet "beehives," which are large circling flocks visible on radar. While we didn't see any beehives, we sure saw lots of independently feeding gannets, and sure enough, they were in the area where we found the big fish. -S