Nice fish Josh and well done with the light gear. How much did he weigh?
I'm not really into fishing myself but my dad used to like fishing with ultra light gear, if I remember right he liked 2# test line. One time, I was about 8 years old, we went fishing at a lake we used to go to, it had Northern Pike and LM Bass in it. He hooked onto a 16# Pike and fought it for about 2 hours before it finally got tired, he did the same as you since he didn't have a net. He tipped his canoe trying to get the fish in it, I was on shore watching. He didn't lose the Pike