Mississippi’s transient 10-day alligator season opened at midday Friday. So at 12:05 p.m. Megan Sasser and her 5 crew mates launched their 21-foot Battle Eagle skiff into the Yazoo River close to Vicksburg. The six hunters, who name themselves the Gator Getters, motored a brief distance downstream, the place they warmed up by catching and releasing just a few smaller alligators. Then got here the storm.
Over the subsequent a number of hours, as lighting cracked overhead and rain pummeled the river, the hunters hunkered patiently beneath their rain gear. Different hunters may need cursed the foul climate however Sasser’s crew, which included her mother and father and three buddies, thought of it a very good omen.
“We sat out within the laborious rain and lighting, simply ready, as a result of we all know that after the rain, alligators have a tendency to return up,” Sasser tells Outside Life.
And certain sufficient, because the monsoon turned to a drizzle, one of many hunters regarded down the Yazoo roughly 300 yards and noticed what regarded like the pinnacle of an enormous alligator. They slowly eased down that approach, pondering it’d simply be an enormous log, after which the pinnacle disappeared beneath the river’s floor.
“Alligators can keep underwater for a protracted, lengthy, time earlier than they’ve to return up and catch a breath. So, we dropped anchor and sat there for an hour,” Sasser says. “He lastly got here up, and we obtained a very good look and we’re like, ‘Nicely, that’s a reasonably good gator.’”
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One other hour handed because the alligator made one other dive, and the hunters repositioned their boat roughly 40 yards upriver. When the gator got here up a second time Sasser’s dad, Marty, and her pal Justin Pettway forged out two heavy treble hooks with their spinning rods and snagged it. The hooked gator then dove for the underside, peeling drag and pulling the boat in circles because the hunters held on for the trip.
“When he lastly got here up, my job was to get a hand line with somewhat larger treble hook in him. That basically made him mad,” Sasser says. “He in all probability pulled us 200 yards down the river … And after we lastly obtained a view of his entire head, everyone within the boat goes, Oh my God.”
Sasser tried snaring the gator, however its head was too massive for the loop, and he or she was solely in a position to tighten the cable across the high of its mouth. The large alligator then death-rolled, snapping the ideas off each fishing rods because it wrapped itself within the traces. After about 10 rolls, the crew was in a position to carry the gator close to the floor to complete it off.
The battle lastly over, Sasser says all six of them tried to hoist the gator into the boat however had been unable to even get its head out of the water. They ended up tying the alligator to the gunnels and slowly ran again to the boat ramp, the place different hunters had been gearing as much as launch for the night.
“By this time, it’s beginning to get darkish, and there’s already a protracted line on the boat ramp. And right here we’re popping out with this enormous alligator,” Sasser says. “A couple of of the blokes helped us roll him into the boat and get [the gator] located. He was so massive although that we nonetheless couldn’t stretch him out flat to get a very good measurement.”
The hunters wouldn’t get any actual measurements till they introduced the gator to Red Antler Processing in Yazoo Metropolis, the place it tipped the scales at 828 kilos — six kilos heavier than the present state file. Sasser reached out to the Mississippi Division of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks that night, and MDWFP alligator program coordinator Andrew Arnett got here out the next morning to have a look.
Sasser says that in keeping with Arnett’s measurements, the alligator weighed 802 kilos and measured 14-feet lengthy, each of which fell in need of the state data. (The present size file for Mississippi alligators is 14 feet, 3 inches and was set just last year.) Sasser’s gator additionally missed the state girth file by simply half an inch.
“However that’s okay,” Sasser says. “I imply, we had been proper there, and it’s nonetheless a beautiful factor to have a good time. In line with MDWFP, there have solely been 4 different alligators killed within the state which might be 14 toes or longer. He was quantity 5.”
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Sasser says Arnett additionally estimated the gator’s age round 60 years outdated. She’s getting the pinnacle mounted and plans to maintain the disguise together with all of the meat. However for now, she and the remainder of the Gator Getters are targeted on harvesting one other gator so she will fill her second tag.
“In Mississippi, you get to kill one small alligator that’s between 4 and seven toes, and also you get to kill what we name a ‘massive alligator,’ or one which’s over 7 toes,” says Sasser, who drew her tag by way of a lottery system. About 900 tags are distributed amongst 1000’s of candidates every season. “This 12 months was simply an enormous blessing for us.”