West Virginia Angler Breaks His Own Fishing Record

Lighting struck twice for West Virginia angler Allen Burkett. On July 20, he caught a giant channel catfish that broke the state record—which he set in the same lake last June. You read that right. For the second year in a row, the same angler broke the same record while fishing in the same waterbody.

Burkett pulled the 37.5-pound channel cat from South Mill Creek Lake in Grant County. He was using a dead bluegill as bait, according to the West Virginia Department of Natural Resources, which certified the record on July 26.

The catfish replaces Burkett’s previous record catch, a 36.96-pound channel cat. He caught it on June 20 of last year, and tried but failed to keep it alive during the weigh-in process. (Check out this story for more details on Burkett’s 2022 record breaker.)

“He didn’t make it,” Burkett told reporters last year. “He was just too weak to return to the water. It would have been nice to have gotten him back as big as he was. But I…