A 13-Foot-4, 900 pound gator was caught this week by a Massachusetts woman fishing in South Carolina.
Mary Ellen Mara-Christian successfully got a permit through the state’s lottery system for the one month long season.
Mary Ellen headed to Lake Moultrie with her husband and few friends in search of a gator. What she found was a monster.
“I said this is what we were looking for and my hands are still shaking,” said Mara-Christian. “He was right there at the edge of the bank swimming on the edges.”
She hooked him with her fishing pole and battled for two hours to get him near the boat. In South Carolina you have to secure the gator and get it to the boat before you’re allowed to shoot it.
“Your heart’s just pumping and pumping he was enormous you could see this part him coming out of the water. His big belly then you saw his head his head had to come out for me to shoot him,” Mara-Christian said.
According to wftv, Nuisance alligator trapper Jerry Flynn came eye to eye with the 50-year-old alligator’s massive jaw and huge claws. The 13-foot-4, more than 800-pound gator is the largest one he’s caught in the six years he’s been a nuisance alligator trapper.
“He is a monster. Doesn’t have a lot of battle wounds and he was likely king of his territory and probably didn’t have a lot of competition,” he said.
lynn said the Sanford Police Department contacted him after they spotted the alligator near a swamp off of 17-92 in Sanford. It’s just outside of the Preserve at Lake Monroe subdivision, where, according to Flynn, recently several missing pet reports have been coming from. The police department, however, said there were no reports of missing pets.
“I don’t want alligators hurting little children. A lot of little children in this community,” a resident told Eyewitness News.
Flynn said he had to get very close before he shot the gator in the head a couple of times with a bang stick.
“It’s a very dangerous position with a 1,000-pound alligator that can jump how many feet? Who knows,” he said.
The next stop for the alligator is a meat processor. The Florida Department of Agriculture said the total value for the alligator’s meat and hide is around $1,000.
Watch 900-Pound Gator Video: