Issaquena County alligator weighed nearly 700 pounds, MDWFP certifies.
It broke a trolling motor. It broke a boat trailer winch strap. But what the 697 1/2-pounder will most be remembered for breaking is Mississippi’s record for heaviest alligator ever taken by a hunter. Killed last Friday night (Sept. 21) in Issaquena County during the private lands hunting season by Tom Grant of Boyle, Kenny Winter and Jim Reed of Greenville, and Michael Robbers of California, the 13.15-foot gator is one fat, massive lizard.
Biologist Ricky Flynt, who heads the alligator program for the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks, verified the record on Saturday. “It is the record, beating the old one of 690 1/2 pounds, which was also set in Issaquena County in 2011,” Flynt said. Flynt said the beast had a belly girth of 65 inches and an even-more-amazing 45-inch tail girth. The boned-out meat from the tail alone filled three 48-quart coolers. “That old boy was fat, and he was healthy,” Flynt said.
And, he was a handful. “About wore us out,” said Grant, who was the permit holder and hunter of record for the gator. “We had to work for him, as you can well imagine.”
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