Angler beats 31-year-old record when wrong fish snaps his hook in West Virginia river

A West Virginia man broke a 31-year-old state record by catching the wrong fish on the Kanawha River.

John Gibson, of Poca, reeled in a 27.88-pound, 35.59-inch freshwater drum, according to the W.V. Division of Natural Resources.

That’s almost a full pound heavier than the record set in 1989, the state reports.

The funny thing is, Gibson wasn’t trying to catch any drum.

“Well, I was fishing for catfish, but I guess the new WV state record drum isn’t too bad!,” he said on Facebook on April 24.

The catch came during an otherwise fruitless day on the river near Leon, he wrote.

News of the record catch has gotten hundreds of reactions and comments on Facebook, including lots of questions on how Gibson trapped “a river monster.”

He has quickly answered most of the questions: His bait was half of an 8-inch shad on a Big Cat Fever Rod; the drum actually lost a little weight on the boat (“When I first weighed it, it was 28.42.”); and it was about 1.4 inches shy of breaking the freshwater drum length record of 37 inches set in 1954.

Gibson says he initially thought he caught a hard-fighting catfish, until the drum came out of the water.

“He hit like a Mack Truck,” Gibson told McClatchy News. “Just about pulled my rod out of the rod holder. Once I got the rod in my hands, I told Terry Legg, my fishing partner: ‘Man, this is a big one.’ At that time I still thought it was a catfish. But when I saw it, I immediately asked what the state record was.”

Gibson posted video on Facebook of the fish being released, after it was weighed and confirmed by state wildlife officers. It is seen swimming away, then appears to come back toward the boat ramp.

“Everybody was afraid he was going to die,” he says in the video.

This story was originally published April 29, 2021 at 9:44 AM with the headline "Angler beats 31-year-old record when wrong fish snaps his hook in West Virginia river."