>>2167815They can be tricky, Sunrise and Sunset are when they are most active. Chumming the water with corn can be very effective, when they find a spot with lots of food they like they often do multiple passes. They will feed off the surface but they mostly feed on the bottom so I’d suggest a heavy weight. They also have sensitive mouths and will often will reject your bait if they detect the hook, so generally a small hook size like #2 is best. I sometimes use a #1 or 1/0 circle hook to avoid gut-hooking catfish that live in the same water.
There is all kinds of specialty carp tackle like method feeders, method leads, pack baits, use of hair rigs..
but I’ve caught the vast majority of my Carp with just corn off a T-Swivel, (PicRel) I cover the entire hook shank in corn leaving only a little bit of hook exposed below the barb.
To increase your chances you can make a very cheap ‘pack bait’ at home, it is essentially a mix that can be packed around your weight, cast out and it will slowly break up off your weight in the water, and chums the exact area your hook-bait is in. Lots of different recipes on Youtube, I just use Oats, JellO powder and cream corn to make mine. The right consistency is the main key with packbait.
