The time I have put into my fishing, using Sonubaits' Fin Perfect hard feed pellets, while refining my F1 fishing skills, has paid off with the capture of the Parkdean Masters title and a wallet-bulging £25,000.

The match was held on White Acres' Jenny's Lake and I drew peg 40 for the final, where the calibre of my rivals included the likes of Alan Scotthorne and William Raison, just back from being crowned world champion in Italy.
My winning weight totalled 74lb 15oz, and comprised 48 F1s, four proper carp and a welcome tench which came right on the hooter to signal the end of the competition.
I started the four-hour event fishing long pole tight to the corner of an island at 19.5 metres, fishing 6mm pellet over micro pellet feed to take three small stockies and a 4lb carp before the swim went dead.
I then switched to the open water, fishing at 16 metres for F1s.
However, this only produced a couple of fish, so I had another look by the island and after 10 minutes and just one roach for my efforts, I knew I had to be positive and dig in deep.
I went back to 16 metres and started feeding five to seven 6mm pellets every minute. I started to slap the shallow rig on the surface and this brought the reaction I had hoped for and I started to catch F1s steadily.
I caught a lot of the fish, suspending the 6mm hair-rigged, banded pellet only 10 inches deep, when there was a ripple on the water, but I had to deepen to 18 inches when it was flat calm.
Some people try to use a short line between pole tip and float but I found, on the day, that up to three feet of line between pole tip and float worked best when the F1s were being spooked by the silhouette of the pole.
The rig was a Preston Pink dibber with a wire stem, which took three number 11 stotz. The main line was 0.15mm Power Line to a 0.13mm Power Line hooklength, with a banded, hair-rigged PR36 hook in a size 18. The shot was slid either directly under the float or set at mid-depth, depending on depth fished at and the conditions. I used my Preston Genis 12 pole with a short stop and a short length of Preston 11H Hollo elastic, to deal with these hard-fighting fish.
If you want to try fishing shallow for F1s, try the Fin Perfect Feed pellets in 4mm or 6mm sizes. These sell for £2.45 a bag.
The 6mm pellets, in particular, make a good splash when they hit the water, and it is this noise that the fish are attracted to. I like to think the time I have invested in learning to understand how these fish react helped me at White Acres.
Winning the Parkdean Masters felt great. It's hard to put into words what it meant, especially with the calibre of anglers I was up against.
Nobody has ever won the Parkdean Masters twice, but I will be keeping my fingers crossed that I can get back for another crack next year.