AGMartin

Rod pods are great in the link from FrequentFlyer. Great for gravel or rocky shores and when needed you can convert the legs to bank sticks for softer ground. SAIL sells them.

Anytime!

YouTube:

Mark Pitchers The Challenge - not only entertaining but very informative for carp fishing many different ways.

And

The Totally Awesome Fishing show TAFishing - hilarious father and son show

Here is what I do every time I go carp fishing.

 

1. Bring worms
2. Bring cork - I use the cork from wine bottles, cut them up into pieces the size of a half inch cubed.
3. I use an ugly stick 7', however just got a true carp rod 12' and cant wait to use that.
4. 15lb mono on a shimano 4000 reel
5. Gamakatsu Octopus size 1 hook
6. Get a hook on the line, slid a piece of cork on to the hook until it covers the eye of the hook.
7. Set your weights about 6 inches from the hook.
8. Grab a nice juicy worm...the whole thing...hook the worm through the hook 3 times on 1 half of the worm allowing the poor other half to dangle and try to get off the hook...yes the darn things actually can work themselves off the hook with a barb lol
9. To test if your home made pop-up works just drop the worm and weight into the water to see if the pop up is buoyant enough to keep the worm suspended in the water. If you are noticing that the worm is not suspending enough just cut a bigger piece of cork.
10. I cannot remember if someone on this forum gave the advice, but I never fish for carp if I a) cant see them or there are no top water indicators they are in the area. So do the leg work, get to an area and watch for bubbles, bows in water from them being so close to the top. I have been targeting rivers recently and believe they have "nests" haha. What I mean is that the carp tend to stay in one section of the river and specifically under trees or bush. Walk lightly along the river banks as they definitely can feel the vibrations and take off right away. I cant tell you how many times I have spooked them.
11. SET YOUR DRAG to very light, I've heard carp can take your whole rod into the water if you aren't paying attention.
12. Try casting near them, not at them as they can be spooked that way as well. LEAVE your bait out there as long as possible. The worm hanging 6 inches off the ground is like a tease and its unreal how effective it works. Carp cannot resistttttttt...and sometimes the cats..
13. Depending if you can see your worm in the water, you will start noticing your line going out as the carp has taken your bait, this is where its totally up to you. I tend to be anxious as hell and rip back to set the hook which works most of the time, but I run the risk of pulling the hook right out of their mouth which happened yesterday.

I have also used boilies from SAIL - which worked 2 times out of 20. With worms I am catching a carp almost every time I go.

 However I do intend to make my own ground baits and try that technique out as well.

One time I was out for hours, the carp were there circling but no takes of the pop up worm. I packed up and headed to the car but noticed a nice beast slowly eating off the top of a weed bed not 30 feet from where I stood for 3 hours! I said to myself how am I going to get this guy...So I took off my weights, made sure the cork and worm are now floating and then tossed it about 2 feet from its face in the direction I thought he would go. He kept going the opposite...but on the 3rd time I saw I got its attention and BOOM he sucked it up like a noodle, line started going out and bam it was the most rewarding day ever.

 

As I said earlier, be patient, let the worm dangle like a free meal as long as possible. the fastest I had a take was under 5 minutes, the longest, 5 hours.

 

I hope this helps and good luck!

 

Cheers