Four hunters in Mississippi bagged the longest alligator ever caught in the state on Saturday, the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks stated.
The department issued a news release that congratulated the four-man hunting team on their giant gator grab. That team consisted of Tanner White, Don Woods, Will Thomas and Joey Clark.
“A new state record for the longest alligator harvested was broken today!” the news release noted. “He measured 14 feet and 3 inches long, with a belly girth of 66 inches and tail girth of 46.5 inches. He weighed 802.5 lbs!” (RELATED: ‘All Hands On Deck’: Alabama Hunters Capture Massive Alligator Weighing Over 500 Pounds)
Later, gator: Record-shattering 800-pound ‘nightmare material’ alligator caught in Mississippi https://t.co/sG1nlUXVgd pic.twitter.com/6paOLJdfCB
— New York Post (@nypost) August 28, 2023
The Department’s website notes that Mississippi opened its first public alligator sport hunting season in 2005. The team’s catch Saturday eclipsed the previous state gator record set in 2017 when hunters snagged a monster measuring 14 feet and three-quarters of an inch.
“We got on the water right at dark,” Woods told the Clarion Ledger. “We were seeing a lot of alligators. It was a calm night. We saw a lot of 8-footers, 10-footers, but that’s not what we were after.”
Shortly after 9:00 p.m., Woods and his team spotted the behemoth.
“We knew he was wide,” Woods said. “His back was humongous. It was like we were following a jon boat.”
The male alligator did not go quietly, however. He battled the hunters until finally tiring at 3:30 a.m. and being pulled onto the boat, Boston25 reported.
“He dictated everything we did,” Woods told the Ledger. “It was exhausting, but your adrenaline is going so you don’t notice it. It was more mentally exhausting than anything because he kept getting off.”
After the grueling seven-hour ordeal that resulted in numerous broken lines and mangled tackles, Woods said, “We’re done with chasing big ones this year. I might even call it a career after that, honestly.”