I don't know ****y, you certainly know how to make up a tale. I can't remember any of that. Oh except the part about the camp chef, he certainly is ;-)
The rod we used for the waggler was my spinning rod; a little lighter than the carp rod, but still barely adequate. When Mark arrived, he had a 13' DAM tele waggler, which he used in conjunction with a centrepin loaded with 4lb Maxima. It was fine when we were only catching those 8oz to 1lb fish, once the 5&6lbers moved in, he had no chance.
I managed to land one of 6lb on the spinning rod and 6lb line, but the Drennan Super Specialists I was using to fish hair-rigged pellet kept opening out on the initial run.
Cracking tale, mate, had to sit down with an Old Monk and Coke to take it all in. Luckily, my drink went down my throat...