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 Conflict 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 a couple of 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 below their rain gear. Different hunters might need cursed the foul climate however Sasser’s crew, which included her dad and mom and three buddies, thought-about it a great 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 positive 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 top of an enormous alligator. They slowly eased down that means, considering it would simply be an enormous log, after which the top disappeared below 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 acquired a great look and we’re like, ‘Properly, that’s a fairly 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 journey.
“When he lastly got here up, my job was to get a hand line with slightly larger treble hook in him. That actually made him mad,” Sasser says. “He most likely pulled us 200 yards down the river … And after we lastly acquired 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 information off each fishing rods because it wrapped itself within the traces. After about 10 rolls, the crew was in a position to elevate the gator close to the floor to complete it off.
Megan Sasser
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 number 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 great measurement.”
The hunters wouldn’t get any actual measurements till they introduced the gator to Crimson Antler Processing in Yazoo Metropolis, the place it tipped the scales at 828 kilos — six kilos heavier than the present state report. 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.
Picture courtesy Megan Sasser
Sasser says that in response to 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 report for Mississippi alligators is 14 toes, 3 inches and was set simply final yr.) Sasser’s gator additionally missed the state girth report 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 accordance with MDWFP, there have solely been 4 different alligators killed within the state which can 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 top mounted and plans to maintain the conceal 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 be able to 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 a lottery system. About 900 tags are distributed amongst 1000’s of candidates every season. “This yr was simply an enormous blessing for us.”