Maybe I'm the only one have this problem but I'll ask for advice anyway.
I just took my new (to me) for it's first trip. I ended up doing a lot of fishing, at least more than usual because we base camped mostly this time.
The other two on the trip didn't want to fish much so most of my fishing was me out by myself in the solo. I had no problems with the small to medium northerns or any of the bass. The one problem I had was I caught one large northern (I know, great problem to have) I'm sure my eyes exagerated it (maybe a lot  :o ) but in the water next to the canoe it looked to be almost as long as my paddle (58", I like a long paddle) I got it up to the canoe and it sat there for a while right next to the canoe. I seldom pack in any net and didn't have one this time. I reached for it like normal but I started to think that if it thrashed at all while I was pulling it in it might tip me over. While I was trying to figure out what to do it got off and it never struck again.
My question is, especially solo in a narrow solo canoe, how do you safely land a large fish? Do I have to really play it out and just hope it gets tired before I lose it? Maybe paddle toward shore with one hand and try to at least be shallow when I pull it in? Any other ideas? It's not that I catch a lot (or really hardly any) fish like this but if I do again I want to at least get a picture.