I enjoyed a great week at Whiteacres finishing third on the Maver Festival and taking the biggest weight of the week - 192lb of carp - all thanks to the pellet feeder and work I had put into practise using Sonu Fin Perfect 2mm feed pellets.

At Whiteacres you have to use the fishery's own pellets but I had honed my pellet feeder technique to perfection using Sonu Fin Perfect 2mm feed pellets. They are quite spongy pellets and can take on loads of water and still keep their shape. I find that they are really great for the pellet feeder because the harder you compress them, the more they explode out of the feeder, which attracts the carp.

To get my Sonu Fin Perfect pellets absolutely spot-on for the pellet feeder, I open a bag on the morning of the match, pour water in above the level of the pellets, re-seal the bag and take it to the match venue like that, giving the pellets time to really drink in all of the water.

I tend to use the Preston inline pellet feeders as you get such good bite registration, and I prefer to use a pellet feeder when on commercial pegs involving only short casts to islands. I think it works quicker than the Method feeder because you know the carp are already there, whereas a Method feeder is the choice when fishing in open water when you need to attract or draw fish to your hook bait.

The Preston inline pellet feeders are available in two sizes - small (20gramme and 30 gramme weighting) and large (25 gramme and 40 gramme weighting). They have a dimpled lead which helps to grip the slopes when casting to islands and the real beauty is they allow you to position your hook bait right among the loose offerings which explode out of the feeder.

I tend to favour a hard 6mm Sonu Fin Perfect feed pellet, hair-rigged to a short, four-inch-long hook-length when fishing the pellet feeder. Carp really love this approach and on the day I caught 192lb at Bolingey, I had 43 fish for my weight, which was only eight pounds shy of a double ton.

For short casts I tend to use the Preston Innovations Mini Carp 10ft rod, while for casting up to 40 yards I use my 11ft 6inch Preston Innovations Excel tip rod. I use 6lb Preston Innovations PowerMax line and the old faithful combination of 0.17mm Preston Powerline to a size 16 PR38 hook.
It's a method you cannot ignore so buy some 2mm Sonu Fin Perfect feed pellets and get practising!