Never under-estimate the power of Sonubaits’ Fin Perfect feed pellets and Ton Up Expanders - I certainly don’t and there is no question that it is down to them that I won the Kamasan Grand Final, worth a cool £1,500!

The venue for this match, fished in late June and featuring many top-class anglers, was the superb Woodlands Thirsk commercial complex in North Yorkshire.

It meant a 6am start from my home near Bristol, but it was certainly worth it. I tackled my peg with four basic approaches. The Ton Up 6mm expanders were fished on a pole rig, short and long. I had another rig for fishing with a hard, 6mm Fin Perfect pellet, lassoed and fished on the deck , and a margin peg for the last hour, with worm as hook-bait. I also set up a bomb rod for fishing with pellet.

I ended up with 144lb to win the match and I caught a good few fish on the Ton Up expanders. I’ve mentioned it before that I will pump them but then watch them and test them until the centre of the pellet goes soft. At this point I will immediately remove them from the water because I don’t want them to get any bigger. I really want them to be the size that they are when you take them from the bag to prepare them. I just keep them in an air-tight box once they are just as I want them, and they are spot-on.

My rig for fishing the Ton Ups comprised a 4 x 14 PB13 fished on .15mm Preston Powerline, direct to a size 16 PR28, with Preston 13H Hollo elastic in my top two of the pole, finished on a Pulla Bung.For the hard pellet approach I chose a Classic 10 float in .4g size, and this was fished on .15mm Preston Powerline, tied to a PR36 size 18 with a small lasso. I use the lasso approach and the hair-rigged band for commercials, but on waters where the fish get hammered, I think the lasso is better because it helps your confidence and arguably means better presentation as the fish can’t see a band around the pellet.

Down the margin I caught seven fish to 7lb in the last 40 minutes and here I caught on a big dendrabena over a bed of pellets and corn. My rig down the margin was a Preston Durafloat 10 in a 4 x 10 size, on  .15mm Powerline direct to a size 14 PR28. The float was shotted with a simple bulk of 4 x number nine Preston Stotz, all bulked one foot from the hook in two feet of water. Elastic was Preston 15H with a Pulla Bung.

It was a great result on a  water that used to fish well to meat but where pellet now seems to rule the roost. Try preparing your Sonubaits Ton Up expanders my way and see if it improves your results. I bet it will!