I’ve had some success in recent weeks by using crab-flavoured Sonubaits' Pellet-Os, but the way I have been attaching them to the hook is a bit different.

In a nutshell, what I have been doing is threading some 0.11mm Preston Powerline through the pre-drilled pellet and tying a tight wind knot in the loop. I have then simply slipped the line over the hookpoint, so that the pellet just sits nicely off the bend of the hook.

When you get a bite the elastic simply pours from the pole tip and that is because there is nothing that can mask the point and prevent fish from hooking themselves. I make sure that I tie up the pellets in advance at home. I reckon 25 pellets is enough to catch 100lb of carp. All I do when I am at my peg is keep the Pellet-Os in the round tub they are sold in, and I then have another small tub of water. I put one of the pellets into the tub and after a few minutes the pellet goes a lighter colour and also becomes slimier, giving off an oily slick and the smell of crab. Every time I put one of the pellets on the hook, I put a new pre-prepared pellet in the water tub.

I have found that you catch up to two carp on one of the pellets, and I have had success using these, fished over a bed of 2mm and 4mm Fin Perfect Feed pellets, mixed in a ratio of four parts pellets to one part groundbait with some Sonu Match Method Mix. The pellets and groundbait are cupped in, and then the carp come into the peg and start sifting through the pellets. The Pellet-O stands out because it is significantly larger and that’s when the fun begins!