I took a trip over the bridge and set up shop over at Saltash in the hope of a better session. It was either that or head over to Salcombe as I know that the Plaice have started to show there this month.

Anyway, Saltash was closer and sounded reasonably promising so I gave it a go.

I fished a couple of hours up to slack high water and then fished the tide right down. Again, like my recent session at Eastern Kings, things were pretty slow for the main part but at least I wasn’t also losing tackle hand over fist with nothing to show for it like that which happens regularly at rough ground marks when the going is slow.

Since it was pretty quiet angler-wise, I fished the floating pontoon just up from the bridge. Out of all the Saltash marks, this ain’t a bad on in my opinion. I prefer the little grassy area right under the bridge (I’ve always done better from there) but I guess slightly changing the venue doesn’t hurt once in a while.

I had a couple of rods out and regularly chopped and changed tactics (as you do when the going is a little slow) and, pleasingly, got a few knocks from time to time.

The shore crabs were a bit of a problem – a bit moreso than usual – and fishy baits were getting decimated by them within 10 minutes of them hitting the water. It was like a race, you just hoped that a fish would find the bait before the damned shore crabs. I’ve never know it to be so bad for them.

Anyhow, I ended up float fishing, spinning and freelining baits for the main part – just to avoid the crabs. And I’m glad I did...

A couple of hours into the session my freshly dug ragworm did the business. The slack line went tight on the freelined ragworm and I was into my first fish. From the take, I was expecting to see a Pollack – but at the surface I realised it was a small School Bass! Sweet! Fist Bass of 2009, and may there be many more to come, I thought. What a result.

I put him back in and stuck to the same tactics for what must have been a few hours longer in the hope of finding a larger one, but it just didn’t happen.

Eventually, the shore crabs got the better of me and I packed up a few hours later. I’ll go back later when they don’t seem quite as prolific. The session from the floating pontoon restored my faith in it – that Bass was a real bonus. Happy days.