I tend to fish alone, but when I do fish with a mate(usually the same one) there's nothing more amusing to the other than a lost fish.
However, 'bout 10 years ago I was tench fishing on a pit in Gloucester. I'd recently upped the PB to 6 pounds. A usually prolific swim was very quiet, actually, I hadn't had a sniff since dawn and lunch time was approaching. Round went the tip and there followed the most dour unstoppable fight I have ever had. Admittedly, 5Ib line isn't a match for even a modest carp. But I knew it was a Tench and after half an hour or so, including traversing an obstacle course up the spit, we had it plodding around just beyond the net.
This thing was huge, when the hook pulled on the final desperate lunge, the most telling thing was that neither of us thought that was funny(and this is a mate who thought 22 stitches in the nut after falling out of a tree was THE most amusing thing he'd ever seen!)
How big. Hard to tell.
The pit, which I love and still fish has fully authenticated eight pounders taken every year.
I do know the line had two and a half feet of slime on it though. Could have wrapped round at some stage I suppose...but who the hell wants a reasonable explaination!