I once forgot to set my drag, and a carp proceeded to take my bait, line, rod and reel (the whole rig) into the river. To make a long story short, I CAUGHT MY RIG BACK WITH THE FISH STILL ON IT! I estimate it was 10 lbs. or maybe more. That is a TRUE story and not a fish tale.
Man, they should live up in Michigan then ...
When I was about 10, my uncle and I were drift fishing down the Tittabawassee River (between Sanford and Midland, Michigan) when the river was in flood and pulled the rowboat over to a portion of the bank where about 15-20 feet of grassy bank was overrun by the river. My uncle caught what was the largest carp that I have ever seen .. and I have seen a lot of them .. and proceeded to back up to pull it up on the bank. He ran out of room when backing up and so I ran onto the covered portion of the bank to drag this fish up ...
... darned thing weight more than I did and proceeded to slap me silly with its tail ...
We eventually got it to the bank. Didn't keep it to eat though .. you really can only eat very small, very young carp. Otherwise, they're muddier tasting than a channel catfish. Set it loose again and I saw it giving me the evil eye as it swam away, as if to say, "Yeah, wait until I see you again in the future ..."
I once forgot to set my drag, and a carp proceeded to take my bait, line, rod and reel (the whole rig) into the river. To make a long story short, I CAUGHT MY RIG BACK WITH THE FISH STILL ON IT! I estimate it was 10 lbs. or maybe more. That is a TRUE story and not a fish tale.