Thread: Go fish...

I’m seeing fish at a distance on my sonar at 5-10 ft in water column over 20’, but even drifting with a 9’ pole I’m not catching. I’m thinking they are being spooked? and I need a 12 or 14’ pole? Anyone have same experience?

Originally Posted by hdhntr

are the vulures and pelicans after the crappie or the shad?

The white pelicans are fairly large birds and when they swim in mass, they get very close to one another, in tight formation. Then they will swim alongside the weed line, driving schools of shad out in front of them. After a while they all turn in unison and flush the shad into the weeds. Once that happens they bum rush them and start gobbling the ones that panic upon encountering obstacles.

Once I saw that for the first time I had to keep an eye on them to verify that was what was happening. They did it about every five minutes. Quite a ballyhoo when they rush in for the kill. Water splashing everywhere.

So the pelicans are after shad.

Unsure why but buzzards hang out near lakes even when there are no fish kills.

It is entertaining to watch them feed. Once you start thinking that the fish are feeding just as ferrously under the bait as the birds are on top. Has to be mass chaos.