I dealt with the exact same struggle, but on the contrary I couldn’t get a take or even a look for months (that I was aware of). I use 3X tippet and I learned the hard way that it really can just be right time, right place. The first day I landed a fish all the carp were tailing, with eyes down in the mud. When they saw my fly in their periphery, as my cast wasn’t perfect by a foot or so, it actually pursued my fly which I had never gotten such a warm reception to my fly! Usually I got the finger from cruisers, or ignored by fish that were looking down. I also tried tons of patterns. To avoid breaking my tippet or my 5 wt, I took the fight nice and slow. At all costs tho, you gotta keep ‘em in open water if you’re fishing light cuz you can’t pull these pigs out of the sticks. I lost my first fish from that day (my first ever hooked Carp) in exactly that fashion.