697 Pound Alligator Caught in Mississippi

A quartet of gator hunters in western Mississippi nabbed what turned out to be a record alligator when they caught a 697 1/2 pounder. Well, a record for Mississippi that is.

The gator, caught in private land near Fitler, Mississippi, measured in at 13 feet, 1 1/2 inches with a belly girth of 65 inches. The beast broke the Mississippi state record by 7 pounds. (An alligator near Opelousas in the early 1900s measured 19 feet, 2 inches.)

Tom Grant of Cleveland, Mississippi and his hunting buddies actually saw the big gator earlier this year while fishing but there was no sign of the monster gator during gator hunting season.

That all changed on the groups' seventh day of hunting when they spotted the record-setter but he immediately dove down to deeper water. That's when Grant decided to make a blind cast. The hook set and after a two hour struggle, the quartet was eventually able to land the gator into their boat.

That's a lot of gator balls, cuz!