Another one....
When a club bailiff many years ago I met a friends "chopsy" son on one of our lakes, and after advising him (on bread fishing for tench) I told him to take off the anti reverse and keep a good eye on his rod `cos the carp were mad for bread too. My last words to him were " ...so dont come knocking on my door when you get your rod pulled in then " to the "yeah yeah " comments off the know it all lad.
Well, within an hour my mates wife is at the door with a sheepish looking son " I ONLY LOOKED AWAY FOR A MINUTE, HONEST" he said. Trudge down to the lake, get the boat out, look for the rod, find the rod pick it up and the carp is still on there. We played the fish back to the boat and it spat the hook out at us in disgust right at the net.
This was a regular occurence on this particularly weedy water. I was known to park the boat in my swim to save time. Saw half of a top of the range Shimano pole pulled out of a young lads hands in a match once by a carp. His dad didnt even know he had borrowed it. never found it either.
Also had a photo of a fellow bailiff mid air diving to catch his rod that had screamed off so fast the reel overran. He caught the rod, the fish was a 3lb common.