727 Pound Alligator And 723 Pound Alligator Caught On Same Day In Mississippi
Beth Trammel and her team set a world record on Saturday morning when they caught a massive 723 pound alligator. The massive animal smashed the previous record of 697.5 pounds and made Trammel a local hero. But the moment was short-lived as Dustin Bockman managed to capture a 727 pound alligator just a few hours later.
According to ABC, the two record setting alligators were caught within two hours of eachother along the Mississippi river.
Trammel said that it took about five hours and the help of two other alligator hunters to get her 723 pound beast into the boat.
Trammel said: “When we first saw him. I yelled ‘oh my gosh we caught the Loch Ness Monster! It was totally unbelievable.”
Two hours later Bockman, an amateur who was about to enter the record books with his first catch, started fighting a 727 pound alligator along the coast of the mighty Mississippi.
Bockman said: “My goal was to get a 10-footer… I couldn’t believe it when it was that big.”
Bockman’s alligator was that big. According to WECT, the record setting catch was 727 pounds and more than 13 feet long. The creature is the heaviest alligator ever caught in Mississippi but it is a few inches shy of the longest alligator record. An animal caught in the Pascagoula River in 2008 was 13’ 6.5″
Ricky Flint, the Mississippi Alligator Program coordinator, said that this is the first year that alligator hunting has been open state wide. The season is only open to a limited amount of hunters (you have to get chosen via lottery) but Flint said that the system is still allowing more people to hunt than usual.
Flint said: “We expect the records to get broken and these will be broken, as well. Maybe before the end of this season.”
Here are some photos of the 727 pound alligator.
what in the RT @darrenrovell: Man captures 727 pound alligator this weekend, breaks Mississippi state record http://t.co/b5vV8ndTlX
— Rob Mixer (@RobMixer) September 3, 2013
13 foot, 727 pound alligator caught in Mississippi…Courtesy MS Dep of Fish, Wildlife pic.twitter.com/tWTn73nbND
— Kent Taylor (@KentTaylorWAVE) September 2, 2013
Flint may think that Bockman’s 727 pound alligator record won’t stand for long but the amateur hunter is ready for the challenge. Bockman said: “If someone beats my record, I’ll go out and try to top it.”
