One West Virginia dad etched his name in fishing history by making an impressive catch on the most unassuming gear imaginable.

On July 21, Tyler Rutherford and his relatives spontaneously decided to fish a family farm pond.

They took worms and a few poles, and Rutherford soon cast a line from his 3-year-old daughter’s pink fishing pole out into the 1.5-acre pond.

The young girl is only able to reel the line in, so Rutherford casts it for her.

“We all just grabbed a thing of nightcrawlers,” Rutherford told the West Virginia Outdoors podcast. “I’d got my daughter a little pink $9.99 Zebco from Academy Sports and I’d got my little boy one for Easter.

“The second cast out, thank goodness my little girl got tired of the spot that I had it cast out in and she reeled it back in, and I cast it back out, and we hadn’t been sitting there five minutes and that bobber just barely started to run.”

As the West Virginia dad’s dance with the fish began, the size of the fight became clear.

“I set the hook, and as soon as I set the hook there was just a big dark black and blue tail that flopped up in the water.”

Rutherford’s dad and children ran to grab a net.

All the while, he fought hard to reel the fish in while realizing the creature was pushing the pole’s 6-pound-test fishing line to its absolute max.

“It was definitely the fight of my life,” Rutherford said.

“I’ve been fortunate to catch  … some pretty decent-sized catfish on my fly rod in the pond … but I’d never had to fight anything like that, it was unreal.

“To be able to do it with my kids right there, and my mom, my dad and my wife, it was the most special fish I ever caught, that’s for sure.”

After a monumental fight, the fish was pulled in and revealed to be a massive channel catfish.

The fish was so big that it shattered two state records.

Look at this absolute monster-sized channel catfish reeled in Wayne County. John Rutherford snagged the 43.51-inch, 46.70-pound cat in his father’s pond on July 21, breaking previous length and weight records. Congrats, John! Keep casting that line 🎣 pic.twitter.com/LdQKx9SFup

— Governor Jim Justice (@WVGovernor) August 4, 2024

According to Outdoor Life, the catfish was weighed by West Virginia Department of Natural Resources biologists and found to be 46.7 pounds, surpassing the state’s previous record set in 2023.

In addition, the fish was found to be a record-breaking 43.51 inches long, beating out a record put on the books in 2022.

Instead of putting this fish on the dinner table or mounting it on a wall, Rutherford decided to release the leviathan catfish back into the pond. He said his dad has always been a strong proponent of catch-and-release fishing.

“She is alive and well,” Rutherford said.

“I was able to take some pictures with her, then I just stepped back in and we got her going. She’s alive and well, so the legend lives on.”

Assignment Editor