A well-written and interesting story!

It occurs to me that I've lost many fish in a similar fashion, and would venture a piece of advice, at the risk of sounding like a know-it-all (which I most definately am not). When you are "holding" a fish, it is resting, facing upstream and taking in oxygen. Don't rest it--wrestle with it! Fight the fish every inch of the way--on a flyrod, I try to always be either letting line out or taking line in.