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  ) 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.

You might want to carry a logging chain for such an occasion. Just thread it & allow it to tow your canoe accross good holes.

i use (by most standards)unnecessarily light tackle, so most of my fish are landed after a long fight. i would never try to boat a large 'green' fish. things can go bad too fast if a fish is fresh. and yes, after a long fight there are times where you have to revive it for a while before it swims off. i land all of my fish by hand, t-boning them right in the narrow spot at the top of the gill plates. then i set the rod down and grab under the gills.

in this order in this fashion is my style
step 1
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step 2
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i have large hands, so this method may not work for you. the orange jaw grippers are probably the safest most consistent method.

That's a big bad boy. Any pike over 44" gets a tow to shore where you can get out and work with him proper like. I'm a huge fan of the boga but you best be holding on tight as the real fight with a big pike begins when you grab hold of them. I think it a poor choice to bring a really big fish into the boat.

My recent capsize was a wake up call of just how quickly things can go awry while dealing with big fish. I had never envisioned ending up in the water after breaking my line. If I had my bow pointed at the fish while trying to pry him out of the cabbage no harm would of happened. Instead I was sideways and the sudden unexpected line breakage gave me enough momentum to carry me over. I really wish I could of had a do over as I would of given her slack and eased right on top of her before easing her out. Pulling just made her dig in deeper. More and more weeds. In spite of going over I'm upsizing my line to 20lb xt while throwing the big lures but I will certainly be a bit wiser.

PhantomJug wrote on Jul 7^th, 2011 at 5:02pm:

Best advice for anything.  More accidents happen from trepidatious action.
Aslo be prepared to let go with authority.