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It's wonderful to obtain firsthand information and experience shared by European anglers. This is a fantastic forum with plenty of kind people.

As @yonny says, your eyes are the most important tackle item you have, although I do sometimes set up without seeing fish, on a 'hunch', in a swim I have been baiting or down to what I expect from the weather forecast. Although I do sometimes get it wrong that hunch often pays off. It may be that without realising it I have noticed some sort of indication that there are fish in the area. You may walk around and see obvious signs, coloured water, bubbles, fins breaking the surface, even rolling and jumping, they are obvious reasons to set up in an area. When I am in my swim, my binoculars are always close to hand, but I also put store on hearing fish. At night I spend plenty of time just listening to the lake while I read a book, you can hear fish crashing, which can give you the need to move or recast towards them. I don't own any of the technical equipment you mention. My bottom substrate composition finder is a marker float and lead. The lead on the marker rod, cast out and retrieved slowly tells me the lake bed, if it is weedy, silty, gravel, sand or clay. Each feels different. Cast the marker float and lead out. If the lead goes into silt it will plug, and need a fair pull to move, it then glides back but feeling 'sticky'. Hit a gravel patch it's like wheels going over a cobbled road, sand and clay is like a smooth road. Cast into clay, the lead may stick, but then pull and glide easily. Look at the lead when you have reeled in, clay and silt will often stick to the lead, weed will be caught up around it. Hit weed with a cast and it can stick, reel in, it feels like it is pulling back. Any of those spots you can normally find the depth by letting the float up to the surface, although weed is difficult. Do I think about bait? Yes and no! Sounds silly, but! If I am fishing over particles I don't normally want a big boilie, I want a bait the same sort of size as the particles, so maybe a 8-12mm boilie. If I'm fishing boilies I use the same boilie as my free baits. I know my boilies are acceptable, I know that the fish eat them. What works on one lake will normally work on another. To be honest, the main reason I change what boilies I use is down to baits becoming unavailable or occasionally just because it doesn't seem to be working. Originally when I joined Brackens Pool I was using Smokey Mackeral, and it worked. The company I was testing for gave me a new bait, I just could not get it to catch, so I I had to change. That new bait did work on other waters and was released, it just didn't work on Brackens. I was using KMG on Nazeing Meads and Alton Water and I loved it, it was catching me fish from both, and on Nazeing, possibly the garlic element was reducing crayfish interest (not sure, don't know, but I had less problems than with other fishmeal boilies), I took it to Botesdale, and started catching on it, then the bait company stopped making it. Again, I could not get confident in the new bait, hence a change to Shrimp, which I have caught on within 3 trips on a very temperamental water.

Just watch any video with terry Hearn in it Most of the time the fish are not on the bottom anyway so most of that can be discounted at times of the day watch for strange movements in weeds look for bubbles. look for bow waves. find one and you will usually find more once you know HOW to look. use the wind and follow it down or across the lake.

I have polarized sunglasses and binoculars. I’ve never tried observing from a tree, but thanks for bringing that up; it’s helped me see just how important this is.

A successful angler will always be on the fish and if that means spending more time looking/searching than fishing then so be it. If you're not on the fish then none of the other stuff (dissolved oxygen, rigs, tackle etc) matters.

Your eyes....... they're the most important piece of tackle you have. Pressure, depths, temps etc etc are all good starting points but I'll not fish until I see a carp to fish for. You cannot catch what is not in front of you.