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I think a lot of the above advice is spot and technique specific. Letting a large (and that term is relative to the tackle you are using) fish take a lot of line may work well over sand or with a single hook, but with plugs in strong current or in a shallow boulder fields fighting a fish on a long line stacks the odds against you.
It may help to think of the fight as four stages. There is the take, roll, thrashing bit....where it is easy to get too rough and pull free. The run.......where how much pressure you can or need to risk depends on the strength of your attachment to the fish (i.e., hook/line strength) and what/where the obstructions you will need to deal with lie. The work back.........where keeping the fish coming with its head up while avoiding slack or prolonged pumping that opens hook holes is key. And the landing....... where the angle of pull and degree of tension on the fish changes quickly and some lightening of forces is usually necessary.
When I think about it, however, once you are past the ego stage of fishing where the size of what you catch and kill makes you feel good about yourself there are two main reasons to seek big fish,.......because they are a challenge to find and hook, and because once you hook them they can and often do beat you. So you smile, give them their due, and try again. Not a bad thing.
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