Tips from Steve Briggs, Master Big Carp Hunter

I used some of Steve Brigg's ideas to land this good size mirror
recently.

Recently I attended the NECC (New England Carp Conference). I had a chance to hear and see via video feed Steve Briggs from the UK. Steve is sponsored and employed by Nash Bait and Tackle.  He travels all over the world in search of big carp.  And, when I mean big, Steve is talking over 50 lbs! He answered a number of questions from the audience and I got several tips from Steve that most of us might find helpful.
1. Keep it simple- Throughout his talk, Steve kept mentioning to keep things simple. He generally uses a simple knotless knot hair rig for all his carp fishing applications.
2.  Hooks- For large carp, Steve generally uses a #4 hook. I think most of us are using a #4 or a #6 when targeting larger carp.
3.  Length of hair-  Steve said he wanted the bait as close to the bend of the hook as possible. So, his hair is just long enought to cover the bait and reach to the bend of the hook. He has little space between that bait and the bend of the hook. I think many anglers use hairs that are too long.
4. Pop-up boilies vs regular sinkers- Someone asked about pop-up boilies vs. regular sinking boilies.  Steve prefers the sinkers.  His reasoning is that you toss in bait (sinking boilies) when you prebait a spot so why would you then go with something different like a pop-up? He did acknowledge, though, that pop-ups did have their pace in certain spots.