How long was that fight?
I'm guessing 45 minutes with three run offs.
What are you smoking? With 30# gear? They fish extremely light drag and it wasn't until near when it died that they would go one or two clicks past strike. It was about an hour to hour and fifteen before the fish fish died, then another fifteen to twenty minutes to haul his :xxx: up off the bottom. Saw the leader five times, and the fish three times before it died.
The first black we had that day that was only 96" two guys fought for close to three hours before it was released. But those two knuckle heads sat on a cooler and fought it. After about ten minutes on the cooler I asked if they had a harness and once I got strapped in, it was a much easier fight stand-up than sitting on a cooler.
I have to say, it was pretty :xxx: tasty too! A local restaurant made marlin fingers from the portion we kept and it was really good. I personally thought it was better than the mahi we had for the main course. It was unfortunate it died but it was not wasted. The rest of the meat went to some of the local mates on the dock and the majority went to school, so not a single ounce of steaks were wasted.