no offense if that's you, but could they have played that fish any worse? my wife's first fish ever on a tip up and largest fish she's ever caught was a 40" pike she played it like she had been doing it her whole life. i'm not afraid of grabbing pike so it came up through the hole one the first attempt. they completely botched that gripper. sigh, end rant. nice work on getting it after it was unhooked tho!