When a group of hunters went looking for an alligator in Mississippi the opening weekend of the hunting season , they wanted a big one and didn't want to settle for something average. After all, they had another weekend to hunt ahead of them.
But one got their attention and after an hours-long fight, they finally put an alligator weighing almost 700 pounds and measuring more than 12 feet in their boat.
"I saw the eyes on him and he was looking straight at us and his eyes were about 4 to 5 inches apart," said Levi Freeman of Oxford . "I knew he was a big one. I told everybody to just cancel their plans for tomorrow because we're going to be here 'til daylight."
Freeman was hunting with tag-holder Lindsey Gillis of Oxford, Bo Ezell of Huntington, Tennessee and Huntley Camp of Oxford. They were on the Yazoo River and were having a good night.
"We probably passed up 40 to 50 alligators," Freeman said. "It was probably the best night of alligator hunting I've ever had. We passed up a bunch of 8 to 9-footers."
More: 'The size and mass of his head is unreal.' Mississippi alligator hunters bag 800-pound giant
Hunters hook into a massive alligator in Mississippi
At midnight, the hunters saw one that was just too big to pass up. They quickly hooked the alligator, but just as quickly, the alligator broke their lines, including the 1,000-pound test line on a throw hook.
"When he broke the first line, he about knocked Huntley out of the boat," Gillis said. "It was him (the alligator) against the boat and he won."
The crew managed to get more hooks on the alligator, but the fight was far from over. The size of the alligator made him almost uncontrollable.
"When I had the rod in my hand, I don't even know how to describe it," Gillis said. "It was like trying to pull a truck up out of the water."
The alligator eventually broke enough lines that the hunters were down to their last two hooks. They made a call for someone to bring more throw lines and hooks, but it would be a couple of hours before they got them.
"When it was one o'clock and we didn't have a throw hook and we only had two hooks in him and those were the only two hooks we had," Gillis said. "If those had broken off, there's no way we would have gotten him in the boat."
'It was just a mess.' Mississippi hunters bag 12-foot alligator after chaotic hunt
The alligator was bigger than the hunters thought
The alligator tired to the point that the hunters were able to get him up to the boat. That's when Gillis got her first good look at him.
"He was 10 times bigger than we thought," Gillis said. "It was very unexpected how much bigger he actually was."
The hunters tried to dispatch the alligator, but a gunshot didn't immediately stop him.
"When we shot him, he went straight to the bottom and it was still a fight," Gillis said. "He was walking on the bottom up and down the river."
Mississippi alligator weighed almost 700 pounds
Camp's father, Harley Camp, arrived with throw hooks later that morning. The hunters were able to get them on the alligator and pull him up. At some point, the alligator had expired, but the hunters shot him again as a precaution.
Gillis said she was thinking at the time, "If that thing comes alive, he's going to eat me in one bite."
The hunters had their gator at 6:45 a.m. and it took another 45 minutes to get him in their boat. He measured 12 feet, 4 inches long and weighed 682 pounds.
As massive as he was, Gillis thinks they may be able to top it.
"I think if we went again and were patient enough and we were considerate of our time, I think we very well could get a bigger one," Gillis said.
Do you have a story idea? Contact Brian Broom at 601-961-7225 or bbroom@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Hunters bag Mississippi alligator weighing almost 700 pounds
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