Great write up John, nice fish the other John!!!
I had the same luck that day. Giant bass hit my big mac on the bottom and gave me a hell of a ride. 10 minutes into the fight, with all the raw towing power and lack of tail thumps, I was pretty sure it was black. But you know how it is, you're always hoping it's some huge yellow with highly personal fighting style...
I just could not get that thing up, he kept towing me around staying in between 40 and 70 ft under me. With my drag tightened all the way, I was finally able to bring him up on the surface. I have never caught or seen a bigger one...
Then it took me a good 10 minutes to revive him.
It was too heavy and hard to handle from my yak. I managed to straighten him up twice; he kicked for the bottom just to pop back up on the surface. I started thinking about getting in the water too... The third time I kept him up straight, and for about a minute I was pushing him back and forth to get the water flowing through his gills. That seemed to work - he finally kicked strongly down for the bottom. I stayed in the area for a while to make sure - I didn't see him again.
Thanks Dave for paddling up to offer help. We definitely need to give each other a hand to make sure these beautiful fish get to swim back down.