Mine would have to be a 16" brown caught on my first night fly fishing trip. Eight fingers turned into thumbs as I thrashed and splashed about loosing equilibrium in the dark stepping upon cobblestones. Was having fun but knew this night would serve more as a guide for improvement than anything else. Planned to move so stripped to the leader and was lifting the rod when I felt the tug.
You know how sometimes your mind can work thru a scenario in half a second that normally takes 10. I'm hung up but felt like a fish, no, waters to shallow, set the hook anyway...
I set the hook and literally slid the fish maybe a foot into water too shallow for him to swim. Got the net under him slipped the hook and took a snap shot in probably less than a minute. Happened so quickly it didn't even seem real, guess that's why its become so memorable to me.
Dave