When I used to fish the columbia reach for sturgeon we would lip the little ones (up to 6 feet ot so. SOme people use a rope to tail the bigger ones while lipping them. The problem is they will sink tail straight down and they are pretty heavy.... hence the rope. I caught a couple 10 footers and pulled to shore and fought them into shallow water. The we would wade out, unhook them, snap a photo, and pull them out to deeper water to let them recoop. They are an interesting fish!