I'm a big fan of the new Sonubaits Soft Competition Hooker Pellets and they helped me to a win with 64lb at Warrington's Partridge Lakes when I targeted F1s shallow on the pole.

There was no wind on the day to battle against, which is a rarity in the North West, and I targeted the F1s on Pine Lake using a Preston Pink in-line dibber, set eight inches deep, with only three inches of line from the pole tip to the float.
I like to fish as short a line as I can as F1s are shy biters and they can suck in and blow out a bait in such rapid style that the shorter the rig, the better the chance you have of hooking a taking fish.
On this particular match I was feeding 4mm Sonu Fin Perfect feed pellets and had tried a hard 4mm pellet, banded on a hair-rig approach, without success. Those shy F1s were giving me all kinds of problems with weird and wonderful bites.
But when I changed to a Preston PR29 hook, with a 4mm Competition Hooker pellet on the business end, the ratio of bites to fish landed went up dramatically.
In fact, these pellets are so good that the fish can't pull them off the hook, as they can with an expander, and you can 'windmill' the rig with the soft hooker and slap the rig to tempt a bite, without the pellet falling off.
A top tip worth trying is to take a quantity of the soft hooker pellets and just cover them in water. The colour changes slightly and they go a little softer than just as they come in the tub.
But the great thing is that over the course of a day they do not break down and stay a nice, soft consistency. They also give off an oily slick, which attracts fish. Well worth checking out and trying for yourself.