This. I had a story similar to @Jar11591 while bank fishing my favorite pond. Hooked something on a crank bait and it TOOK OFF. I know there are catfish in the pond, and also good size carp. I'm guessing it was a carp, although the story is cooler if it was a massive cat. I've landed carp on that little 8lb mono I was using, but not this time. Sucker snapped me off about a second after hooking him. It was fun for that second though.
I think probably my craziest fishing story was my first year of fishing since I picked it up again. (This would have been 2021.)
It was a short fishing trip after work. I still had my work clothes on.
I had walked maybe a half mile of river bank and was on my way back to the car. I fished both ways, and had caught nothing but a handful of rock bass. I was tired and sat down on the bank, my feet hanging just above the water. I had tied on a T-rigged senko and was just fishing the bend in the river very casually, not really paying attention. I was listening to the Tampa Bay Rays beat my Detroit Tigers. The part of the bank I was sitting on was deeply undercut by the river, and as I reeled my bait in and was about to lift it out of the water, a long, dark shape darted out from underneath my dangling feet. I'd never seen a pike in person before, but of course I knew what it was. I was enamored by this long, carnivorous fish. It seemed to levitate there in the water, nearly motionless, his nose not four inches from my worm. I was locked on him, he was locked on my bait... I gave it a twitch and he struck.
I went to set the hook, but all I managed was to rip the worm in half and Mr. Pike was gone. Did I really expect to hook this guy on a T-Rig? Not really, but it's what I had tied on. As fast as I could, I cut off the bass bait and tied on a big jointed crank bait. I didn't know much about pike at the time, but I figure he'd be more likely to hit a big moving bait like that than a rubber worm. Plus, the lure was big enough it might protect me from getting bit off.
Five casts later, I hooked him. It was a rush of a fight. I'm afraid I was too scared of losing him that I don't remember much of it. But I managed to lead him to the bank, and now I was in a pickle. The water was two feet or more below the bank I was standing on, and I had no clue how to lift him out. I didn't have a net, and I was still squeamish of getting bit. (What a coward I was.) I think I eventually just lifted him out by the line, praying the bait wouldn't come out of his mouth.
Once I landed him, turns out he wasn't nearly as big as he'd looked in my adrenaline fueled state: only 25 inches. But it's still one of my most memorable catches. My heart belongs to the smallies, but boy if the pike and musky don't turn my head.
