Watching a fish regain its colors an strength is pretty special. Two memorable releases come to mind for me.
The first came when my buddy hauled in a beast of a 30#er at the canal. I can still remember how alarmed I was when his drag got my attention and I turned to find him holding on for dear life with his 11' lami looking like a horse shoe. He is a solid dude and I knew he was into a good fish by the way he was leaning back to keep her from going down current or burying into the bottom. After landing this impressive fish and taking some quick measurement and a picture he waded into the water to start bringing her back to life. After a few moments of working her back and forth he saw she was ready to rejoin her sisters. As he let her go she swiped her enormous tail one last time and showered him with a huge spray of water, he stood up and had the biggest grin on his face, something he rarely does after landing a good fish.
The other memorable release came on a fish I caught in the surf with my two buddies. We got into a great bite at one of our favorite fall spots, a reef that always had big surf on the left side and calm waters on the right where boulders and bubble weed always collected.
The surf was ripping and the fish were holding right in front of us, blues and bass together. They were teen sized fish each of us were picking them up on various plugs. The smaller fish were holding tight to the reef so I decided to hurl a redfin out behind the waves to search for something bigger. After a good cast on the back of the last wave of the set the redfin got smashed and I was concentrating to keep her from running left towards one of my buddies who had just casted. She wasn't a cow, but larger than the previous fish I had hooked up with. She took one solid run then I worked hard to keep the waves from pushing her to my left into the rocks. I got her close and found a nice high teen fish at the end of my leader. I failed to weigh her as I do for most of my fish. I am always paranoid about losing a fish from taking too long to get them back in the drink.
Typically releasing the smaller bass right at our feet back into the surf was fine because you would get a few moments in between sets to revive a fish. Since I got this girl at the end of a long cast and the fight was more straining I decided to take her on the back side of the reef where it was calm and I could work her without getting smashed by rushing water. I found a safe spot for my rod and went waist deep between some rocks and started the process. Her tail was twitching but her dorsal and pectoral fins would not stand up. As I was pushing and pulling her I could hear my buddy behind me landing fish but I kept telling myself not to rush it.
Finally her fins began to flex and her tail twitches became more powerful. Soon I was struggling to hold on and I knew she was ready. She thrashed one last time but I held tight so she wouldn't head in the wrong direction. When she relaxed I let go and she slowly pushed her tail back and forth leaving a nice wake in the flat water and disappeared. Her colors looked incredible sub surface and swimming slowly.