A group of anglers on Sunday reeled in one of the largest blue marlin ever caught off Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, after a marathon struggle that did not end with the billfish alongside the 31-foot boat.

Four hours into a fight that sapped the strength of four novice fishermen who had already battled several large tuna, the 814-pound marlin perished.

Tiburon deckhand Salvador “Chava” Flores spent the next two hours reeling the behemoth to the surface. (The anglers had hoped to release the fish alive.)

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Their new dilemma was that the marlin, which had struck a trolled ballyhoo and a large green lure late in the afternoon, was nearly 14 feet long and more than 5 feet around.

The Tiburon, run by Pisces Sportfishing, is designed for smaller game and does not have a transom door through which to slide enormous billfish. The marlin was too massive to be tied to the transom outside the cockpit, and the weary anglers and crew were not strong enough to haul the fish over the rail.

Capt. Rosendo Gomez telephoned for assistance, and another 31-foot vessel arrived with four crewmen.

Pisces stated in a news release: “Even with all this manpower of four anglers and four additional crew it was impossible to hoist the monster fish, that had grown in estimation every hour, into the boat.”

Fortunately, a much larger Pisces yacht was nearby and arrived to save the day. The marlin was collected through its transom door and delivered to the weigh station in the Cabo San Lucas Marina.

At 814 pounds, according to Pisces General Manager Tracy Ehrenberg, it became “the largest fish we’ve seen in many years in Cabo.”

The largest on record, Ehrenberg said, was a 1,070-pound marlin caught 26 years ago – also in April.

The anglers, visitors from California who had spent 12 grueling hours at sea, seemed in the mood to celebrate.

Mark Molnar thanked Ehrenberg for the Tiburon crew’s persistence, saying, “The crew stopped at nothing to achieve the objective and we will never forget that.”

Curtis Paul added that it was a day of firsts: “The first time we have hooked one fish on two lines. The first time we have had seven tuna on at one time. The first time reinforcements were sent, and the first time we caught an 814-pound fish.”

Typical blue marlin season in Cabo San Lucas waters is late summer and fall.

–Images are courtesy of Pisces Sportfishing