I once hooked a Big Barbel in the fork of the tail when float fishing, the old " hooked in the open end of a half full cement bag justifies the struggle pretty well.
Also a Trent salmon almost twenty years ago had me up and down the bank where I must have covered two hundred yards before a tree stopped me going further. The fish then took a hundred and fifty yards of eight lb line before I had no option but to put the anchors on, up came a big bar of silver before the hook came away.
A year or so ago however I had just landed a rather large Bream and resting it in the margins in the landing net I was prepping my scales when the other rod signalled a bite- b- - her, no option but to play a nice Tench with the Bream in the net but it was proving very hard to handle so I threw a leg over the landing net handle with the net as close as possible .
Ok for a few seconds but I was wearing chest waders and up to the gentlemans bits and the fish in the net was thrashing about and in danger of easing itself over the lanyard so I had to re adjust the net again , all this with a very active Tench that managed to get itself stuck in a heavy weedbank.
I had to heave a little at this stage and thankfully the Tench was free but things became rather strange fight wise.
I thought the fish was free but it was nr in line with my mainline , somehow I was snagged up on weed below the surface, some floating stuff and a carp anglers crack off!!
It took an age to net the Tench with another fish trying to escape and it didn't help while trying to stop it escaping at the same time-- the resulting tangle was a real nightmare and one that had me packing away to head home.
The Bream was a target fish-- the Tench I could have done without, Grrrr !!!