Mike takes the Lead

He put his bait on with the same routine he had been using all morning and cast it out. Mike reached to set the rod in the holder but it was not to be. The line took off like a bullet shot from a high powered rifle. His line was rolling off his reel like he hadn't seen in quite some time. He quickly pulled the excess line out and snapped the bail shut, lowered the rod tip towards the fish. Standing ready to set the hook when the line went tight. Imagine his surprise when the fish stopped dead in the water. Mike quickly reeled up some line until it went tight and jerked as hard as he could. A moment later he felt the hard pulling on the line and felt the fish swirling and thrashing around trying to dislodge the hook from its mouth. Mike's mind was whirling now. He had been fishing less than an hour and there were already enough fish caught to feed several groups for breakfast. Now here he was wrestling with something bigger than anything he had caught so far today. Between the fish he kept and put back and now this one he had already caught more fish than the three of them caught all day yesterday. Twenty-Five minutes later Mike was on his way to the weigh station with not only fish for the house breakfast but one to add to his total. Mike had to get wet to get this fish in. The fish's last attempt to swim upstream on Mike was stopped by a couple large rocks where the fish had gotten stuck. Mike went into the cold water and retrieved his fish. The judge smiled when he saw Mike and quickly took the fish he had been holding up as he walked towards them. Two of the judges went into the back with Mike's fish then came out smiling. Mike knew he had taken the overall lead without anyone telling him so. It was confirmed when the judges came out. The head judge went to the leader board and wrote Mikes name in first place then posted his fish's weight and length. Twenty-Eight pounds and Forty-Five inches, Then cautioned Mike that he could only enter two more fish into the contest. Mike just claimed his big fish and went back to camp. News of his fish spread through the contest like gossip at a quilting bee. Who would top Mike's big fish and by how much? Could it be topped?