As the weather had improved to a sunny (24 degrees) and an offshore wind, Graham and I decided to try for bass from Crow Point on the Taw/Torridge estuary. We decided to experiment; Graham would fly fish and I would spin with a bubble float to see which method worked best. Graham started well but I was getting many takes that resulted in nothing so decided that my lure was too long and the fish were grabbing it away from the hook, a No.6 barbless, so I cut my small red gill style lure down to about 1.5" This resulted in a dramatic improvement in the strike rate and then we caught fish for fish. Graham catching more as he used a point and dropper and so on 16 occasions he caught a double-up. It was also obvious that as the flies were smaller, they took them more easily as I also had scores of fish flash but not take the lure.
![](/Images/2016%2008%2015/2-up.jpg)
So overall, Graham caught more, but the bass I caught were a slightly larger size so there was no way one technique proved better than the other.
![](/Images/2016%2008%2015/bass.jpg)
It was noticeable, however, how you would be steadily catching fish, then they would move away suddenly and you wouldn't even get a fish to show. As we moved and found them again, the sport was hectic so we moved along the shoreline overlapping each other getting a steady stream of bass as the tide turned and started advancing. Graham managed over 75 whilst with my single hook I managed about 50 odd. All in all we estimated between 125-150 fish in total, all safely returned. A red-letter day