Thought I won the tournament!

I was having a pretty good first day at Clear Lake during the West Coast Bass tournament when I made a cast and felt a bite. I instinctively set into it and at first it felt like I had set into a log. That immediately changed as the rod began peeling out drag and the fight was on. Each time I was able to make some ground on the fish it would turn and take off again. This was a big fish. After the third or fourth run both myself and my partner were overwhelmed with anticipation of the size of this large fish. About a minute of fighting I had it below the boat but we both hadn’t seen it yet. “I need this fish!” I said. Just then it finally came up to the boat and we were able to net it. A catfish!!! It took me about 15 min to stop shaking because I thought that fish was going to win me the tournament, instead it just got me hyped up for nothing. The one good thing is that if it would have come off before I got a chance to see it then I would have been haunted by the thought that I may have had a giant bass on.