I can catch carp at Ghostie and the Trinity, but I usually don't do well at area lakes. I had a great time yestereve using a swimfeeder, but didn't have any bites in about 2.5 hrs of fishing. Do I just need to be prepared to wait longer for lake carp to find the bait, or are there some things I can do to improve my results?

The only carp I've ever caught is out of a pond.

well it really depends, if the carp are already there, you may catch in a few minutes, if not it may take a while, for example, emma long it usually takes 24hrs to catch a fish, iv been lucky and caught 4 or 6 hours after getting there. plus it being this hot thats has a big effect also.

Fish where the fish are. It takes longer to bait the fish in if you are on a larger body of water. In most lakes fish can be found in the same places every trip. For example Grapevine has The Cliffs, Scottys and Stinky beaver. If a swim is not producing and you know it should, then move and try another. Knowing where the fish are most likely to be is huge when fishing lakes.

if you can find a lake with a channel they seem to like hanging out around there.

yeah, i use the terrain to my advantage as well

i have been fishing lake worth with no experience on the lake at all and have caught quite a bit of carp, i just looked for coves or anything that looked like it could produce food, even lake arlington i managed to do awesome on my first serious trip out by locating the channel that the power plant creates.

Yeah, because of the sheer size of lakes, they can be very hit or miss. At GV for example, I've fished the same spot for 6 hours without a fish, and I've caught carp within 10 minutes of putting bait in the water.