On Saturday evening on a favorable tide, I was in my yak having a go for some whiting on topwater. Whilst the session was a little quiet on the whiting front (3 at around legal) I did manage to somehow (read fluke) latch onto a monster tailor at my estimate to be 55-60cm, on 4lb braid with 6lb leader it was pulling plenty of string for a long time. After the longest fight of my fishing career maybe 20 mins I managed to get it to the yak up alongside. It was meant to be headed to the dinner table and home for a photo-shoot, however it had other ideas and decided to thrash about once more as I was prepping a glove and pliers to remove the treble from its mouth. It managed to flick itself free and after a brief teasing pause disappeared back into the darker water never to be seen again.
I'm a novice when it comes to dehooking larger fish from the yak and the adrenaline was still pumping so I was disappointed to say the least now that the evidence of a massive box ticking fish went when it didn't want to play the game with me. Usually the phone stays at home on the chance that I end up tipping over I don't lose it.
One of my mates who put me onto this particular spot asked later about my travels and I regaled my epic struggle against such a river monster. He suggested that the fish was landed as I got it to the yak. I would suggest that it wasn't landed as it never entered the yak. When I normally catch from the bank it is fairly cut and dry that a fish is only landed when you get it to dry land. Is there an alternative view when fishing from a watercraft?