I have told this before but I will tell it again,
When I was about 13 I went with my dad to a tidal stretch we often fished and never caught much. This day a shoal of big bream were rolling right in front of us. The old man was in straight away with his float and maggot and the float disappeared. He hooked a bream and got it to the surface and it was huge, well the biggest fish either of us had ever seen.
He shouted to me get the landing net made up but as the water was at high tide and right up to the concrete slipway I said I can hand it out. No he shouted get the bloody net made up. I insisted and got down and got the Bream in my arms and just lifted it out above the surface with a struggle; then I dropped it and it slipped the hook and was gone.
He did not speak to me for a month, forever glowered at me if it was ever mentioned for the rest of his life; never forgave me but I would have been the same.
That was a cursed first fish fish for sure. A lesson learned though, I always put the landing up before I wet a line since that day.