Circling back ... Do you?

[Nauti Natured]

I have heard a few different opinions on this. If you get a strike or see a fish in your spread that doesn't come tight, do you ever circle back? I do it quite a bit when I am kingfishing and occasionally if I see a school of dolphin and have had good success. Offshore, I dont typically change my path. What is your opinion on this! Do you circle? When? Why? Species?

Thanks on advance for your thoughts!

[clt_capt]

Most of the time yes... There is a reason there are striking fish there - even if I don't know what that is (ie: no rip or weed line, no obvious structure)

Also - a lot of times, fish will be directionally oriented - circling back puts me back into those conditions.

[Deep C]

Almost without fail I'll go back and hit the same line over and over. Might vary the angle or approach after I have drilled the original line a few times... As clt said. Something had that fish there and may be holding more. At Chub Cay banging "spots" has long been our best producer...

[juicyhook]

Yes I do, its that sign of life that gets me thinking about what am I doing that detered that fish from my spread at that time I will begin jigging baits and dropping back to see if I can get them excited. If that does not work I will start changing out baits to better suit that game fishes flavor.

[Persistence]

I will certainly come back around and will usually always try to follow the same path/angle once or twice. If no more strikes, then I'll approach the MOB spot from different directions and change speed as well.

[rabcoman]

Yes I do

[JRJBfishing]

Absolutely.. Unless there is something driving me ahead (i.e. hugh bait ball, schooled up tuna) I will whip it around and return to the place of strike.. The above post pretty much summed up the whys..

[WahooKing]

If we miss a strike, I do a figure 8 back over the spot...I've caught plenty of fish with this tactic...And you never know...Sometimes that one fish might be that winning or trophy catch.

[BTH284]

With out a doubt yes. My track plot at the end of each day offshore is a series of figure 8s circles u turns over mob marks and x patterns. Each successful day I would bet every fish comes over a 1 to 3 square mile area when the bite is hot.

[offshore]

First thing I do on a strike is hit instant waypoint to mark the spot. Keep up speed for 30 seconds or so then start fighting the fish turning the boat back with a wide turn toward the side the fish hit on. We pound that spot until we catch more fish. Or if we see bait we keep pounding away. When we hook up every fish we put a mark on the chartplotter until we get a pattern going. You would be surprised how fast you can pick out a pattern to follow. Also if we find the fish are hitting a certain color we are fast to switch out the others in the spread. I carry enough of each lure to set out a whole spread of the right color combination.We never leave fish to catch fish if they are the right kind.....Mark