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.
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.
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