what to do with really energentic big boys?

[GonnaCatchABig1]

bear with me on this...

ok so about 3 days ago we revisited an old spot. with in five minutes i hooked into a 3ft+ bluefish. easily the biggest thing i landed this year (sad huh?) any between the blues energy and the currents it turned into one hell of a fight. shortly after i hooked into another.. this time it felt slightly bigger.. in both case line was screaming out at a terrifying pace. so i tightened my drag to with in maybe 5-10 clicks of being all the way.. now since then i have hooked into 3 nice fish. the first two.. slightly over powered by the drag. but still took about 10 yards at a time line. both pulled so hard and had so much force against them that they ripped the hook out during runs. so ok.. maybe i over did it.. but then the third fish.. last night. on its first run with almost full drag nearly spooled me. after four minutes of my spool screaming i started freaking out. nothing i could do but hold on and watch it go. got all the way down to the mono and i started thinking "i hafta stop this some how". but the spool was spinning so fast i was afraid id get hurt. (already cut myself on the first one) either by massive friction burn, or the edged of the holes catching my fingers and cutting em up. also i was certain if i stopped it, it would have snapped the lne. so i just sat back and prayed it would turn.. however 5mins into this run still going full speed... it too ripped the hook out. my friend lost 3 fish this was also.

so two questions.. how should i have attempted to halter that run?
and with this problem of hooks being torn out, should i upgrade to the thick live bait hooks? would that make a difference? i am all ready using 9/0 circles and switched to 9/0 bait holders. both got torn out.

kinda nice problem to have huh? it just really frustrating having nice fish on and not being to land em.