It has been a very frustrating few months for me as I await surgery to clear up a bad case of tennis elbow – but the gloom lifted a couple of weeks ago when I fished Bannister Hall Farm and won an open with 79lb of carp using Sonu Fin Perfect expander pellets.

In fact, I used either 4mm or 6mm Fin perfect expanders to catch fish on a day when it was fairly hard and it required some clear thinking to outwit the fish.

I drew peg 51 on the main lake and was told at the draw that it was not producing much, with most of the fish being located in the pegs to the right of it.

Nonetheless, I tackled up determined to give it a fair crack of the whip and after initially catching a few carp fishing in mud-holes tight across at 16 metres, I dropped in on my 13 metre line, where the water was five feet deep.

I loosefed 6mm hard Sonu Fin Perfect feed pellets and set up a nice light rig using a Preston PB Silver 6, which has a fibre bristle and a carbon stem. This was fished with a spread bulk of three number nines at mid-depth, with four number 12 shot strung out below, creating a lovely slow drop. The hook, a PR32 size 16, carried either a 4mm or 6mm hook-bait and a lot of the bites came when the pellet was anywhere between 18 inches off bottom and the bottom.

I used a Preston 9H Hollo elastic through the top two of my pole and in that last hour and forty minutes caught a steady procession of stockie carp to seal a very satisfying victory.