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That's why we use leaders Nick.

A barbel rod should do the trick. They make great floater rods too.

@crusian, through a couple of pm's made me really think about my fishing. I struggled for a couple of years on Nazeing. I was catching occasionally and big fish closest to my largest fish, but I never really felt on top of what I was doing. This year was a total change, going onto a large reservoir where no-one had really carp fished, no-one knew what was about, so it was all new. Plenty of walking, looking a few times 'camping', but over the year I have caught more fish, and more 20+ than in the previous few years. Even with no 30lb carp this year, I would say it has been more enjoyable; from the scenery over 350odd acres, to the catching of probably uncaught fish. Fishing has been mostly on my terms. From two days of mostly sleeping, to two days of watching. To prebaiting and catching, to learning.

Agree entirely Mate, although I dislike using them unless necessary. Think this pic shows how necessary it was in this swim.

A standard float/match rod is not designed to take 8lb line generally 2-4lb , some commercial carp or Tench type rods are fine with 4-6lb .You need to match the line with the rod to stronger line and you risk overloading the and breaking it ! If the carp are averaging 20lb then why not use a carp rod but just fish a float and why only a size 10 hook ? A waggler is usually fished with the line running through the small eye on the base of the float either locked in place with a shot either side or float stops either side these are easier to adjust the depth or if fishing deep water as you can allow the float to run up to the top stop allowing you to bring it through the rod rings on retrieval. If the water is snag free then using mainline straight through is fine but if your near snags then it may be worth upping the breaking strain but use a lighter hooklength that way if you get snagged the hook length will break . As for hook size what bait are you going to use and how are you attaching the bait ?