Alabama Hunters Harvest Monstrous 900-pound Gator on Opening Day
OutdoorHub Reporters 08.19.15
A group of men hunting on Alabama’s Lake Eufaula took a massive 900-pound alligator on opening day last Friday. The hunters recalled spotting the gator almost immediately after they got into the water, but snagging the beast was no easy task. Although the fight was a short one, the men said they were still sore days after the experience.
“It was surreal,” Scott Evans, one of the hunters on the trip, told AL.com. “We weren’t expecting anything that big.”
Evans was accompanied by his friend Jeff Gregg, Gregg’s son Justin, and their guide. Their alligator, believed to be about 60 years old, measured an impressive 13 feet and six inches, which will likely qualify the animal as the largest alligator ever harvested from Lake Eufaula.
The gator also came close to the state and world record, which currently belongs to a 1,011.5-pound animal harvested by the Stokes family last year from Alabama’s Mill Creek. Part of the mass of the Stokes family’s harvest (more than 100 pounds) consisted of a deer in the alligator’s stomach, which it had been slowly digesting. A taxidermist for the family discovered the anomaly during preparation for a full-body mount. That did not disqualify the creature from obtaining the world record, however. Master measurers from Safari Club International certified the Stokes gator as the largest in the world last August. In that case, the size of the alligator’s skull was also taken into consideration.
The alligator caught by Scott Evans and his friends may not be the biggest in the world, but it does firmly take second place in Alabama. The previous record alligator harvested in the state belonged to Keith Fancher, who took a 838-pound animal in 2011. Alabama’s Department of Conservation and Natural Resources does not officially list alligators in its records program, but does recognize exemplary harvests.
Evans said he plans on getting the gator mounted.
You can see pictures of the 900-pound gator below:
