Watch for Brown Pelican and the Royal Tern in Florida waters and they will find the bait.

The old saying goes 90 percent of all fish live in 10 percent of the water. Follow the birds and it will not be long before the larger game fish will be on your line.

Watch the Brown Pelican and the Royal Tern. They will find the bait.

The Brown Pelican is a large sea bird, but it is the smallest of all Pelicans. It is the only pelican that is dark in color and only one found along oceans and not along inland lakes. They are the only pelican that dives from the air to water to catch their food. The adult birds have the yellow and white marking on their heads and the immature birds have no markings. The Brown Pelican will feed on all sizes of bait. When Brown Pelican is feeding on small bait, 1 to 2 inches, they hit the water on a very swallow angle. Basically scooping the bait. This is when the sea gills will perch on the pelican’s head. As the pelican is releasing the water from it’s pouch, the sea gill plucks the bait that is not seined. On the bigger bait, the pelicans will approach from a higher straighter angle.

Royal Tern is the second largest Tern. It plunge-dives when it feeds. Most times the angler can hear the bird before they can spot it. The Royal Tern has a very loud call. Follow the call it will lead you directly to the bait. A fun thing to watch is the male Royal Tern will offer the female a fish as courtship display while fling around the bait schools. Royal Tern feed in family packs and they feed on 3 to 5 inch bait. The bait they like is in the Herring family, such as Sardines, Pilchards (white baits), and Threadfin Herring (greenback or greenie).

The old saying goes 90 percent of all fish live in 10 percent of the water. Follow the birds and it will not be long before the larger game fish will be on your line.