BIGGEST ALLIGATOR CAUGHT IN MISSISSIPPI!

A UPS worker caught the heaviest and longest alligator in Mississippi over the weekend.
The first record was set early on Sunday, with a 10ft reptile, weighing 295.3lb, which took the heaviest and longest titles for a female alligator.
Just a few hours later however, first-time hunter Beth Trammell, of Madison, helped haul in a 723.5lb male alligator. Her catch broke the state record, but only for a few hours.

Later in the day UPS worker Dustin Bockman was part of a three-man team who caught a 13ft long, 727lb beast from the Mississippi.
“We’re going to cook it for sure,” he said.   “There’s plenty for me and everybody else.”
Alligators had nearly been hunted to extinction in Mississippi in the 1960s but a successful conservation program now means the state needs controlled hunting of the reptiles.

It offers permits to a select number of people each year, who are able to hunt in public waters from August 30 to September 9.

It took Mr Bockman, his brother and a friend, nearly 12 hours to catch the huge gator.

After two hours of trailing it, they got close enough to shoot it with a crossbow, which is where the fight between man and beast began, the Clarion-Ledger reported.

‘He would go to the bottom and sit like a log. You couldn’t do nothing with him,’ Mr Bockman said.

Compared to what came next, reeling the 727lb beast in was nothing. 

After it was dead, the hunters were faced with the dilemma of how to get the carcass in their boat.
It took four hours of tugging before they gave up, and rested their catch on a sandbar as they waited for help.

The three men then waited for more than two hours for reinforcements to arrive.

‘Tired, hungry, we’d been pulling on a 700lb gator for four hours, and we really needed a nap at that point,’ Mr Bockman said.

As they made their way back to have it officially weighed and measured, they heard another hunter had caught a gator weighing more than 700lb and feared their hopes of glory would fade.

The story of their catch was echoed by first-time hunter Ms Trammell, and her team of six, who took more than four hours to catch, kill and tow to shore their 723.5lb beast.

When she first saw their alligator surface, she said: ‘Oh my gosh, it’s the Loch Ness Monster.’
‘It took about four hours to get it in the boat,’ Ms Trammell said. ‘We had to flag another boat down to help us out it was so big.’
After taking the record for the heaviest alligator Mr Bockman plans to use its skin to make a gun strap and a picture frame.
Ms Trammell is making arrangements to have her gator butchered for meat. ‘I think my brother-in-law is going to get the head mounted,’ she added.

Jessica, Jerreat, Daily Mail