This sort of stuff is talked about a lot on the Carp forums. One thing seems to be very common though..and thats the huge difference between the instant angler who walks into the local shop, kits himself out and turns up on the water expecting to catch...and the angler who started off catching sticklebacks with a bandy net, watching the frogs and newts in the margins, understanding the activities of the water birds, starting off catching tiddlers, then hooking a bigger fish and deciding that thats what they want to catch and so they start to strive for bigger fish, different fish, fish from other waters, fish from rivers, streams, lakes, ponds, reservoirs etc.
There is no substitute for experience..simple as that, and fishing the same water day in day is not the way to gain that experience..folk have to challenege themselves if they want to be a good all round angler. Fish different methods, fish different waters, fish wild waters, fish stocked waters etc etc.
There is often a suggestion that some anglers have a sixth sense..well i firmly believe that. Far to many times I have caught fish almost "on a whim"..I get a feeling thats something is about to happen, I get an almost extra alertness that comes over me and I just know I will catch in the next minute or so.
Anyone else get that feeling??