Using a fishing outfit designed to catch bluegill and crappie, a fisherman landed a 46.7-pound channel catfish that broke the West Virginia record by more than nine pounds.

Tyler Rutherford used a nightcrawler to make the catch from the family’s farm pond on July 21, and the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources announced Thursday that it was a state record. It was also a state record for length, measuring 43.51 inches.

The previous weight record was 37.5 pounds caught by Alan Burkett from South Mill Creek Lake in 2023. Burkett also held the length record of 40.59 inches on a 36.96-pounder set in 2022 at the same lake.

West Virginia Outdoors reported that Rutherford caught the big catfish “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 told 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.

“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.”

Using six-pound-test line, Rutherford loosened the drag and hoped he could tire the fish out before it bit through the line.

“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,” he told West Virginia Outdoors. “Every time she got within 10 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.”

In the end, Rutherford waded into the water and used his bare hands to secure the fish. It was put on a stringer and later released after DNR confirmed the record.

“I jumped in the water for about 10 or 15 minutes just working to revive her,” Rutherford told West Virginia Outdoors. “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.”

This was the sixth state record for West Virginia this year. Others were for tiger trout, redbreast sunfish, bowfin, redear sunfish and black crappie.