Mississippi’s 2024 alligator hunting season got off to a whopping start when a team of six hunters reeled in one of the largest monsters ever caught in the state.
The 14-foot-long, 802-pound alligator was caught in the Yazoo River, which stretches over 2,000 miles through Mississippi and Louisiana.
The group stood proudly with their catch for photographs, and all six were needed to hold up the lifeless creature.
The yearly hunt kicked off last month and is set to run until September 9, allowing participants to take home their prize for ‘wallets, belts and eating,’ according to state rules.
The group reeled in the alligator last week in the dead of night. Officials determine the creature measured 14 feet long and weighed over 800 pounds
There are more than 3,700 people participating in the 2024 hunt, with an average of five to six people on each team.
The rules state that permit holders may harvest up to two alligators over four feet long, but only one can be longer than seven feet.
The largest a alligator ever recorded was 19 feet, two inches long and weighed more than 2,300 pounds when it was caught in in Louisiana in 1890.
However, the most recent monster was captured in Arkansas by Mike Cottingham in 2021.
Cottingham claimed the beast was 13 feet, three inches long and weighed 1,380 pounds.
The largest in Mississippi, killed in 2023, was about three inches longer than the one captured this year.
The team, which included Megan Sasser, braved torrential rains to capture the 60-year-old beast.
In a social media post, Sasser said she and her team are ‘still over the moon’ after reeling in the reptile last Friday.
‘We sat through a monsoon for over 3 hours… crunched 2 poles, survived the death roll a few times, displaced everything in the boat, and still managed to bring this monster home,’ she continued.
Brandi Robinson, also part of the winning team, explained that the giant alligator was spotted 250 yards away from the boat.
Mississippi holds the hunt each year, allowing participants to capture no more than two alligators
Brandi Robinson (pictured), also part of the winning team, explained that the giant alligator was spotted 250 yards away from the boat
‘Everyone’s binoculars were immediately glued! It was a big one and we all knew that,’ she said, as reported by The State.
The boat slowly made its way toward the giant creature and the team waited for about 45 minutes for it to come back to the surface before wrestling with for about an hour.
It is not clear what tools were used to capture the alligator, but hunters can use everything from snatch hooks to harpoons and even firearms.
The six-person team loaded their catch into the boat and brought it to a local meat processing company, Red Antler.
After taking pictures with the prized gator, the team took it to a local meat processing facility
‘In the last five years, we here at Red Antler have processed probably about 3,000 alligators, and we have only got two that were over the 14-foot in length measurement,’ Shane Smith, owner of Red Antler Processing, told McClatchy News.
The team took most of the meat home and donated the rest to Hunter Harvest, a nonprofit organization that gives hunted and harvested meat to families in need.
Sasser also shared a picture of her and the alligator on Facebook where friends called it a ‘monster.’
However, not everyone was thrilled to see the giant catch.
One Facebook user commented: ‘That gator had to be at least 50 years old to have gotten that big. Such a shame. He’s a beautiful animal.’