By: Capt. Joel Brandenburg
When trolling offshore we look for 4 things in this order: birds, organized weed lines, floaters (objects floating on the water), and other boats that have already found what we’re looking for.
When you find birds, you usually find the other 3 things. Identifying the right birds and the bird actions are key to locating gamefish.
The bird that is at the top of the food chain is the frigate bird also called war bird or man o war bird. Sometimes we find one frigate and sometimes we find a flock of frigates. Sometimes they are so high in the sky we can barely see them and occasionally they are diving near the surface. Once in a while they are low and circling. Frigates can’t land or even dive in the water because they can’t get wet. If their wings get wet then they will die. Frigates wings don’t shed water like pelicans, ospreys or seagulls. Because their wings wick water, their wings get too heavy to take off out of the water and they eventually drowned. Because they can’t dive in the water like all other ocean feeding birds to eat their fish, God made them with a hooked beak and a serrated bill so they can dive down inches from the waters surface and pick off flying fish. They have an insatiable appetite for flying fish. They start out early in the morning at sunrise trying to locate the largest bull and cow mahi. The reason for this is once a bull and cow mahi exceed 30 inches they find a mate for life. Once they connect they spend the rest of their days feeding and breeding together.
Mahi also have an insatiable appetite for flying fish. The hunting mahi couple spook up a lot of flying fish, so the frigate will lock on to the big bull and cow and try to stay over them all day to maximize the flying fish opportunities. When you are trolling offshore and you spot a frigate bird, it’s mandatory to troll under that bird. The frigate could be anywhere in the world, but they are right there right now and they are there for a reason and it’s not to get exercise. Nine out of the last ten big bulls we’ve caught have been right under frigate birds. We like to troll naked (unskirted) medium rigged ballyhoo at 6 knots about 100 yards behind the boat.
We like to troll one bait on each outrigger and a 50 yard (shotgun) bait up the middle, three baits total in this situation. The reason for this trolling scheme is we are targeting a big bull and a big cow and when they hit, all hell will break loose and they will likely jump, cross and dig. We want to keep them separated and if one hook pulls or the ballyhoo is hit, missed and/or destroyed we have the 50ft shotgun bait ready to feed back to the frantic mahi. When the bull hits first, the cow will almost always hook up immediately after, but when the cow hits first we only get the bull a quarter of the time, almost as if the bull gets upset at the cow for feeding before him.
I was explaining to an 11-year old the other day how and why frigates do what they do. The kid who, by the way, says she wants to be a marine biologist when she grows up, asked me two great questions about frigates.
“If frigates can’t get their wings wet what happens when it rains?”
My answer: when it rains the frigate either ascends above the rain clouds, moves away from the rain or finds a floating object on the water to roost on.
“We are out 30 miles out in the ocean and we left before the sun came up, how did the frigate bird beat us out here?” My answer: the frigate birds have been recorded in the air for over 200 days in a row. The way they sleep is by flying 5000 feet up in the thermals, setting their wings, closing their eyes and descending an inch at a time. We also chase white colored birds that we call seabirds. Sometimes there are one or two and every once in a while, we find a birdnato (tornado of birds). When the birds are picking at a spot it’s normally mahi. When the birds are chasing fast and covering a lot of ground it’s normally tuna. Find the birds and you’ll find the gamefish. Good luck trolling!
— For a charter with Ana Banana Fishing Company Marathon
Florida Keys call 813-267-4401 cell, 305-395-4211 office, or email us at
marathonkeyfishingcharters@gmail.com You can also visit us in person at Ana Banana Marina at 12699 Overseas Highway Marathon Florida Keys or Captain Joel Brandenburg 570 Sombrero Beach Rd Marathon FL 33050