Setting up to catch Carp.

[BML]

I am not a very successful fisherman but I do enjoy the Sunday Matches the Club I'm in have which are mostly on the River Thames. This year the Club Individual Match is on Panshill fishery and I have visited it to see what it’s like to fish. I used a swim feeder with maggot, then a Waggler Float with worm and found I was getting savage bites from what appeared to me to be three inch Carp and Roach. Then I hooked a Carp that was near enough 12 inches and it was quite an experience and later in the day I found that just using ledger weight and worm bait fetched the bites.

As a result of my day out I have decided that I will go again for a day out to see if I can work out how I can do better than I usually do at matches and that is the purpose of this post.

Would someone be so kind as to advise me as to what I need to do to catch Carp. I don't mean by siting there for five hours with a rod on its rest waiting for a Carp to pass by I mean what size hook, what ground bait, what bait? Should I use a float or a feeder? My apologies for possibly appearing simplistic but at my age I can’t afford to wait around.