In all honesty, I'd switch over to 17 lb mono first off. No need to wrap the clips this way and gives the fish less time to escape. Also, the absolute worst thing you can do, and something I see people do often, is to let the line snap back when removing the board. Most often I see this happen when someone will allow the line to stay tight but instead of holding onto it while removing the last clip, they just squeeze the clip, allowing the line to whiplash back. The person taking the board off should hold the line with steady pressure on the fish, then allow the person retrieving to reel down to their hand before letting go.

Also, if you're running solo, maybe try to go to 7' rods to make it easier to reach the tips when you're trying to grab the board. There's really no need for a 9' rod, you'll just need to shorten your leaders a bit to make landing the fish easier.