I have actually done the same thing...

About 10 years or so ago, we were on a family vacation in Ea. Wa.

I got bored with the lake and wanted to check out a local river. So up the river we drove...

We found a likely looking spot and I began fishing. Because I was the only fishermen in the family, the rest of them lounged around in lawn chairs as I sat on a log drifting single salmon eggs under a promising looking loglam.

After a few hours of this, I finally hooked by far the largest trout I had ever seen on my light spinning rod. The fish didnt have much room to run but he still managed to put up on Hell of a fight and as the rest of the family came over because of my screams and yells, my dad realized he forgot the net.

Now a little kid's eyes can aide in exaggeration but to this day, I swear this fish was atleast 5 pounds.

So my dad in his infinite wisdom grabs a lawn chair and asks me to lead the fish so he can scoop him up! As the fish neared, my dad took one large scoop with the chair. He made one Hell of a good scoop but the second that fish felt the chair, he started flopping wildly, slipped out and busted the leader.

So there I stood in total disapointment watching the largest trout of my life swim back to the depths of the river.

As I look back on that incident now, I cant help but laugh and I am actually relieved that the tussle with the fish ended like it did as this was one monster Bull trout and I know my dad and I would of stood there wrestling with the fish doing what we could to get the hook out to release him and thus the fish's chance of survival would have been small!