My preferred method to land BIG pike is to slide my fingers under the lower jaw to find the V shape notch where the gill plates come together, then lift. But...as westwood says, you have to be sure they are ready to be landed. The touch he mentions is a good way. Someone asked my why we tapped northerns on the head in one of my video trip reports a while back, that is why. If you land a 20+ lb northern in a canoe while it still has a heap of battle left you are in for some unwanted excitement, I know that for a fact. We gave up on nets altogether a while ago and hand land everything. I think nets are much harder on the fish when they tangle and thrash and spend more time out of water. I bet that studies, if they exist, would show use of nets results in lower survival rates. When we hand land a big fish it always feels like a race to remove the hook, snap a picture and get it back in the water. Another thing we have started to do recently is to try to land near shore once the fish starts to slow down, if possible, more for our safety than the well being of the fish. At times it has been easier to just step out and pick up the fish rather than try to hoist it into the boat.