I've been spending quite a bit of time at Larford in recent weeks and I had some success with skimmers on the pole on my last visit by snipping a Sonubaits 6mm Ton Up Expander in half.

I had drawn peg 51 on the chalet bank on the Specimen Lake at Larford and all the carp were down one end of the lake, away from me, having followed the prevailing wind, so my game plan was skimmers or bust.
I was getting indications on the float all the time but often they were not resulting in hooked fish.
It was very frustrating but then I had a bit of a brainwave anddecided to reach for the scissors and snip a 6mm Sonu Ton Up expander pellet in half. This simple actionreally transformed my fortunes, with confident bites replacing tetchy pulls and dinks and the result was 40lb of skimmers.
It wasn't quite enough for a section win on this occasion, but it did provide plenty of food for thought.
My idea created a talking point after the match because an angler pegged next to me saw my catch rate go through the roof and he was quick to quizz me after the all-out.
The reason I got busy with the scissors was because I think sometimes that a 4mm expander doesn't pump up big enough and 6mm expanders can sometimes be simply too big, if you know what I mean.
On the subject of pellet fishing at Larford, my rig, on days when it is flat calm as it was on this occasion, usually involves a Preston PB Inter 2 float, of a gram, and this is fished in conjunction with a Preston Hollo 11H elastic, with a Pulla Kit, l so that I can control the fish and net them quickly.
On the Specimen Lake at Larford I don't take any prisoners and fish with 0.17mm main line and a 0.15mm hook-length. Interestingly, the lad who had 20lb of skimmers to my left was using 0.12mm diameter hook-length, so I think it proves the line diameter made no difference at all.
My feeding involves potting in a 250ml pot of 4mm and 6mm feed pellets, which have been soaked the night before, followed by half a pot of sweetcorn. I then loosefeed 6mm pellets on the float with a catapult, and every 20 minutes or so pot in half a cup of 4mm pellets, but spread them over an area so the skimmers can graze.
I use an olivette set-up on my skimmer pellet rig, set about two feet from the hook, with three number nine shots as droppers.
I like this arrangement because it gets your pellet down fairly quickly but I find you catch quite a few fish as the pellet settles in the last two feet, below the olivette.