WAYNE, W.Va. — A Wayne County man has shattered the record for the channel catfish in West Virginia.
Tyler Rutherford of Wayne, W.Va. caught the monster cat from his family’s pond in back on July 21st. The big fish weighed 46.70 pounds and was 43.51 inches long, both were new records for the channel catfish. The old record for length was set in 2022 and the weight record set in 2023. Those two previous records were held by Alan Burkett of Moorefield in Hardy County with two separate fish. He caught his record catfish at South Mill Creek Lake in Grant County.
Amazingly, Rutherford caught the big fish on the least likely setup you’d ever imagine.
“I got my daughter a little $9.99 pink rod and reel from Zebco at Academy Sports,” Rutherford explained on West Virginia Outdoors. “She’s three and she can reel them in, but she can’t cast it out. So I cast it out for her and I was holding the rod and she was sitting on my lap.”
Listen to “Tyler Rutherford — Record Channel Catfish” on Spreaker.
Rutherford said the bite came on the second cast with a nightcrawler and immediately he could tell is was a huge fish.
“I set the hook and there was a big black and blue tail that flopped up in the water and my dad immediately said he was going after the net. All three kids took off screaming after him,” he laughed as he shared the story.
The pole was rigged for a child to catch bluegill and crappie, not for hauling in record catfish. Equipped with six pound test line, Rutherford immediately started to loosen the drag and began the long process of trying to tire out the giant.
“Pretty much for most of the fight there was nothing I could do but hold her and hope her little sandpaper teeth didn’t grind through the line. Every time she got within ten or 15 yards of the bank it was like she knew she was about to be caught and she’d take another big run. It was definitely the fight of my life,” he explained.
Rutherford worried he wouldn’t be able to get the fish close enough to the bank to use the net or the net would be too small hold the big fish. Turned out he was correct in both assumptions and he ended up wading into the pond to secure the tired out trophy with his bare hands to finish getting her to the bank.
“Even once I got her I was so tired from reeling, Dad and I just grabbed her and rolled her up on the limestone rock. It was all we could do to get her up on the bank. It was definitely a team effort,” Rutherford laughed.
The catch came on a pond which is quite special to the family. Rutherford said his dad carefully built the pond years ago and was meticulous in arranging the rocks along the bank, the cover, and the types of fish he would stock. He was also particular about water quality and catch and release of the fish. It’s the water where Tyler and most of his family learned to fish.
He was able to put a stringer into the fish’s lip and hold her in deep water until the DNR could get biologists out to take a look. Afterward, they were able to turn the fish loose back into the pond.
“I jumped in the water for about 10 or 15 minutes just working to revive her. She was exhausted, but thankfully the Good Lord wanted the legend to live on. She was able to get herself back to where she was able to go back and forth on her own. She’s alive and well,” he said.
Rutherford’s catch is the sixth state record fish caught in 2024 in West Virginia
