An enormous alligator caught by four friends in Mississippi on Saturday has broken the state’s records for the longest and heaviest ever snared.
The scaly beast hauled from the Yazoo River by Don Woods, Tanner White, Will Thomas and Joey Clark measured 14 feet three inches in length, according to the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks (MDWFP), whose Alligator Program co-ordinator Andrew Arnett made the official measurement.
It weighed a whopping 802.5 pounds and boasted a belly girth of 66 inches, the MDWFP said on Facebook.
That comfortably beats the old record set by a Mississippi gator measuring a mere 14 feet 0.5 inches and weighing just 766.5 pounds.
Recounting the epic tale to The Mississippi Clarion-Ledger, Mr Woods explained that he and his companions were experienced hunters who had nevertheless fought with the monster for seven hours straight before finally landing it in their boat, losing plenty of equipment overboard during the tustle.
“We got on the water right at dark,” he began, setting the mood.
“We were seeing a lot of alligators. It was a calm night. We saw a lot of eight-footers, ten-footers, but that’s not what we were after. We’ve been hunting these things a long time. We’ve killed a lot of 12-footers.”
Having spotted their target when its “humongous” back crested the surface, Mr Woods said the group managed to get a hook into it around 9pm, after which: “We held onto him a while – until 10pm or so. He broke my rod at that point. We hooked him eight or nine times and he kept breaking off.
“He would go down, sit and then take off. He kept going under logs. He knew what he was doing. The crazy thing is he stayed in that same spot. There was no moving him. We couldn’t do anything with him.”
Relishing the details of the titanic struggle, as any self-respecting fisherman should, Mr Woods said of the next few hours: “He dictated everything we did. 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.”
As for what’s next, Mr Woods told The Clarion-Ledger: “We’re done with chasing big ones this year. I might even call it a career after that, honestly.”
The southern state has opened its rivers to alligator sport hunting every year from 25 August to 4 September since 2005.
Facebook users reacting to the story have typically expressed horror at the sheer size of the “nightmare material” reptile, attempted to place pre-orders for handbags and boots, or disapproved of the animal being “harvested” for sport.
But one person, apparently completely nonplussed by the record-breaking river beast or its welfare, instead saw an opportunity to hit on the hunters, writing: “I like the guy on the far left with the light colored pants and the rubber boots on. Hello handsome!”
