I unintentionaly caught a lively 11lb carp on 3lb line once.
The trick of course is to have the clutch set properly, with some skilled
additional pressure when you can on the spool from your thumb, and hope you
dont get snagged. In theory, as long as you dont get snagged, have all the
time in the world, and plenty of line on the spool, you could land a whale
on 10lb line.

If you want a scientific answer, and dont get one from this group, try
rec.puzzles - those guys really like to get their teeth into a query - they
gave me a great response recently on weighing a fish that is too heavy for
my scales!

Ian

"peakstroller" wrote in message
ups.com...
Does anyone have any idea of the weight to thrust ratio of your average
Carp? For example, how much breaking strain can a 10 llb fish exert
onto your fishing line in open snag free water?