I'm still coming to terms with the reality that I have made it through to the Fish-O-Mania Final this summer - and I like to think that hours of practise, fishing and feeding with Sonubaits' Fin Perfect Feed Pellets helped to make the difference!

The qualifier I won was staged at Barford Lakes, near Norwich. This is a hell of a venue, and carp are the name of the game.

I drew peg 15 on Pleasure Lake and I was in good company with big-name anglers such as Tommy Pickering, Geoff and Steve Ringer, Grant Albutt and Simon Fry there to keep me company! I knew that a very positive approach was needed. The lake is very deep and I knew that I would not catch those carp on the bottom.

I prepared a margin swim, four pole rigs for fishing anything from six feet deep to a foot-and-a-half deep, with pellet hookbait, and finally, two identical pellet waggler rods. These were the Preston Sentient Power Float 13 footers, and my reels were loaded with 8lb Korum reel line.

The pellet floats were the new six gram unloaded Preston Pellet Wagglers, and I finished the rigs off with 0.17mm Powerline hooklengths, with banded-hair-rigged PR36 hooks in a size 16, using 8mm hard pellets in the band.

My plan was to constantly feed my 13 metre pole line and my margin swim, while kicking off at 30 yards out with the pellet waggler attack. When you are gunning for one prize only, as was the case in this qualifier, you need to be positive and setting up endless rigs only complicates matters.

The match went like a dream and I was soon into my first fish of the day on the pellet waggler. In fact, I finished up with 21 carp for 157lb, with my biggest going 14lb 8oz. In one golden spell, in three casts I put 30lb of carp in the net!

My pellet waggler routine is worth trying out if you haven't already perfected a method of your own.

This is what I do:
Step 1 - Feed six pellets out with the catty.
Step 2 - Cast my waggler into the spot where the pellets have landed.
Step 3 - If the float doesn't go straight away feed another six pellets on top of the float.
Step 4 - If you haven't had a bite after a minute, give one turn of the reel handle to twitch the float, then feed another six pellets on top of it.
Step 5 - If, after another minute or two the float has not gone, feed six pellets a metre shorter and drag the float into the new feeding zone. If the float hasn't gone after a minute, retrieve and repeat the entire process, starting by feeding before casting.

Incidentally, the pellet waggler is a fairly inexpensive way to enjoy a day's fishing. In the Fish-O-Mania qualifier I reckon I only fed between two-and-a-half to three pints of pellets.
Usually, if fisheries do not stipulate the use of their own pellets, I will use the Sonubaits Fin Perfect brand, usually in 6 or 8 mm sizes, as you need these sizes to fire bait out easily.
Give the pellet waggler method a go - it can be a killer!