Wayne County pond yields new state record for channel catfish

WAYNE, West Virginia — A Wayne County man has broken the record for the largest catch of channel catfish in West Virginia.

Tyler Rutherford of Wayne, W.Va., caught the huge catfish in his family’s pond on July 21. The big fish weighed 46.70 pounds and was 43.51 inches long, both new records for channel catfish. The old record for length was set in 2022, and the record for weight in 2023. The two previous records were held by Alan Burkett of Moorefield in Hardy County, who caught two different fish. He caught his record catfish in South Mill Creek Lake in Grant County.

Amazingly, Rutherford caught a big fish in the most unlikely place imaginable.

“I bought my daughter a little pink rod and reel for $9.99 from Zebco at Academy Sports,” Rutherford explained at West Virginia Outdoors. “She’s three and she can reel them in, but she can’t cast them. So I cast them for her and held the rod, and she sat on my lap.”

Listen to “Tyler Rutherford – Record Channel Catfish” on Spreaker.

Rutherford said the bite came on his second cast with the worm and he knew immediately it was a huge fish.

“I set the hook and saw a big black and blue tail jump out into the water and my dad immediately said he was going to get a net. All three kids ran after it screaming,” he laughed as he told the story.

The rod was rigged for a kid to fish for bluegill and crappie, not to land a record-breaking catfish. Equipped with six-pound line, Rutherford immediately began loosening the drag and began the long process of trying to tire out the giant.

“Throughout most of the fight I couldn’t do anything but hold her and hope her little paper teeth wouldn’t break through the line. Every time she got within ten or fifteen yards of the bank it was like she knew she was going to get caught and have to work hard again. It was definitely the fight of my life,” he explained.

Rutherford was worried that he wouldn’t be able to get the fish close enough to the bank to use a net, or that the net would be too small to hold the large fish. He was proven right on both counts, and he waded into the pond to secure the tired trophy with his bare hands and finish bringing it to shore.

“Even after I caught her, I was so tired from staggering that Dad and I just grabbed her and coiled her on a limestone rock. That was all we could do to get her to shore. It was definitely a team effort,” Rutherford laughed.

The catch came in a pond that is special to the family. Rutherford said his dad carefully built the pond years ago and was meticulous about placing rocks along the bank, the cover and the types of fish he wanted to stock. He was also picky about the quality of the water and how he caught and released the fish. It’s the water where Tyler and most of his family learned to fish.

He managed to insert a string into the fish’s lip and hold it in deep water until the DNR sent biologists to examine it. They were later able to release the fish back into the pond.

“I jumped in the water for about 10 or 15 minutes trying to revive her. She was exhausted, but luckily the Good Lord wanted the legend to live on. She managed to get back to a state where she could move on her own. She’s alive and well,” he said.

Rutherford’s catch is the sixth record-breaking fish caught in West Virginia in 2024.