To net or not to net??? That's a lot of water to take a fish to shore; so I say they did the right thing by utilizing a net/boat to land her. I'm familiar with that section of the river and there are not many slow-water spots to land the fish from shore. I suspect a protracted fight would ensue from the bank in that heavy water, expending lots of her energy. So she lost a few scales and slime versus being totally played out and exhausted. IMO she would've been worse off with the latter. Maybe consider a knotless landing net for the future...