JACKSON, Miss. (WABG) – A hunting party in Mississippi pulled in a monster this gator season.
First-time alligator hunter Aubrey Westerfield led the team that caught the 12-foot-long alligator that weighed 628 pounds.
“When I seen his foot and his foot was bigger than my hand, I knew,” he said. “Everybody was like, ‘Oh my God.’ And then we seen his head. And when we seen his head I was like, ‘Whoa.’”
Westerfield was with his wife and another group of men when they caught the alligator in the Yazoo River.
Westerfield said it took a team effort to bring the beast in.
“I threw my hook over him, hook him to the side, and when I hook him to the side he just took off and I knew right then he was the biggest thing we’ve ever seen,” he said. “He put up a battle for about 40 minutes, but we finally got him close to the boat and then we threw two big hooks in him, got a noose on him, and we dispatched the gator.”
Wesley Newton, owner of Newton’s Chop Shop, said he received an early morning phone call about the gator. Seeing it in person lit a fire in his eyes.
“He woke me up at 2:00 in the morning and we come up here and spend a couple hours here with it, and it was exciting, big, and really nice,” Newton said.
Newton said skinning, processing and preparing the gator is a job in itself.
He added the trophy-size catches like this one are why he loves what he does.
“It makes it just that more exciting whenever something like this comes in, you know that trophy status, especially around this part of Mississippi,” he said.
Westerfield said they plan to cook the alligator, mount the skill and stretch its skin on the wall.
He advises anyone planning on hunting gators to be cautious and bring friends.
“Take somebody that’s done it before and put multiple people in the boat because if you hook up a big one, you’re not going to be able to get him by yourself,” he said.
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