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http://www.walb.com/story/23539673/lake ... e-a-record

Lake Seminole gator sets new record
Posted: Sep 26, 2013 2:31 PM EDT
Updated: Sep 26, 2013 6:45 PM EDT
By Dave Miller - email

SEMINOLE CO., GA (WALB) -
Standing at a whopping 13 feet, 10 and 3/4 inches, a monstrous 620 pound gator with gigantic jaws and paws was spotted on Lake Seminole Wednesday night by Alex Harrell on what began as a duck hunting trip.

Harrell didn't have a permit to kill the gator so he called his friend Gary Braswell to find someone who did.

"He called me and I happened to be in my schedule where I could make it," said Hunter Jim Overman. "I had just arrived home from work it was about six thirty in the evening, by seven o'clock we were at the water ready to go and by 7:15 or so we had the first line in him."

It took four men and Archery equipment to restrain the gator, but it took almost three hours to kill it.

Hunters say this gator was so aggressive that it required several tools to take him down. Its jaws snapped a harpoon in two.

"He stood his ground and he actually blowed up [and] showed a real aggressiveness to us you know, and I was glad we was able to get him," said hunter Gary Braswell.

Overman says the gator even broke an 800 pound test line.

Several spectators came out to watch Georgia Department of Natural Resources officials measure the gator, even kids got a chance to touch him. One DNR official says he's seen a variety of species but this one tops them all.

"I don't know about you but man I'd take me some Advil I was sore as I could be this morning," said Braswell.

They plan to name him.
"we actually thought about naming him snaggle tooth because he's so old he's missing some teeth," said Braswell.

The previous state record was 13 feet and 9 inches.

Beast!

WOW….the MAN!

That's a GIANT................ I'm sure there is a few in Talquin that size. After several late night trips chasing catfish we've seen a few that looks like that.

thats a shame, Sorry to see that big boy leave the gene pool.

Jim and I were suppose to go gator hunting Wednesday night. We had been talking about it for a week and I had just talked to him at 4pm. We were to meet at the Home Depot parking lot and take my boat. He called me at 6:45 to tell me he had some intel on a 12 footer and that another guy was going to help us and bring his boat(Gary). He told me to leave my boat at home and meet them at the ramp. I told Jim to go ahead and go as I was running 10 minutes late and didn't want to hold them up. Plus I know how most intel you receive about a gator is wrong and either he's smaller than first thought, or not as easy to get as they are thinking. I WAS WRONG.



The whole story from Daniel.....

So yesterday after work me and Bud (Alex) were scouting for teal. We came around the end of an island and I saw what looked like a big gator floating on the hydrilla mat. We thought it was dead and bloated so we motored over to see how big. When we got about 20 ft away he turned and started swimming towards the boat. Holy crap he's still alive! And not scared! We backed off and he kept swimming towards the boat! Those that have hunted gators will tell you that this is NOT typical animal behavior!! We backed off and tried to think if we knew anybody with a tag - we knew the gator was over 12 ft. We called the local taxidermist and he knew a guy with a tag. He was able to get up with him and they met us at the landing right before dark. Since we knew we could get close the plan was to drive up and get two arrows in him. When the shot was made one bow had a line/arrow malfunction and one hit solid and the gator took off! It pulled the buoy under the matted hydrilla and we never saw it again. We went to where we last saw bubbles in the hydrilla mat and started trying to find the line with push poles. After 30 minutes bud bumped something on the bottom that moved!! It kept moong slowly away and Gary (the taxi) was gonna try to get over him and reach the harpoon down to get another line in him. It was too deep so we rigged the harpoon to the push pole and we took turns pushing it through the hydrilla trying to contact the gator again. This was pretty tiring. Somebody finally stumbled upon our bouy line! We tied on a bigger buoy and started trying to follow the line. The gator pulled the boat a little ways then took off- our only line to him was now snapped! I asked Jim (the tag holder) to give me his tangled bow line so that I could rig it back up because I knew he couldn't stay down for ever. Whole I untangled they continued to probe the grass for the gator. When I got done I shined around and spotted him on the surface 50 ft away! As we push poles that direction he made some desperate attempts to submerge and made quite a scene. We knew the arrow wound must have luckily injured him pretty badly. He went back under but when we got the boat over there he was on the surface again and we put another arrow line in him. Wanting another line in him we tried to harpoon as well. The harpoon must have hit one of the huge hand sized scutes on his back because later we saw that the point was vent over. As he rared back to hit with the harpoon again (didn't know it was bent at this point, only knew it didn't penetrate) the gator turned suddenly and bit the harpoon in two! To say that was intense is an understatement! That seemed to be the last bit of energy the gator had because we were then able to pull him beside the boat amd gaff him for a shot. Jim put several in his boilermaker but we still couldn't be sure he was dead. One shot seemed to deflate the gator and he just sink to the bottom and we couldn't hold him with the gaff. The hydrilla was too thick to drop the huge treble hook on rope to the bottom so we rigged it up on the push pole and reached down and hooked him. It took all two of us had to pull him to the surface with that rope. Once we did we put a lasso around his mouth and tightened it down. Gary then held the mouth shut while I used a whole roll of electrical tape on him. The prize was now ours, but we still had to get him in the boat! It just wasnt working. So two guys held him while we drove to shallower water where it still took all our strength to get him in the boat. It was at that point that I realized the gators potential. Seeing his tail all the way at the front of the boat I noticed his head was only a gaffs-length away from the stern. I slowly asked Gary how long is this boat? He said 17ft why? And I showed him what I noticed, and it was then that we realized we had close to a 14ft gator!!! We got him back to the shop and laid him out. We took several measurements and we knew we'd have to call the DNR to come measure it. Not knowing exactly how they did their official measurent we didn't want to celebrate just yet! However today at lunch we met with DNR and several local news crews and got an official measurement of 13ft 10 3/4 inches!! He weighed in at 620lbs, which I thought was light considering how wide he was. But then we realized his belly was empty. One meal for that gator could increase his weight 100 lbs or more. Anyways, it was a hell of a night and I've realized that getting huge gators has as much to do with luck as anything else and being in the right place at the right time with the right gator.

Hi story is much better than the news article.. Very cool!

Some kind of story. Had me sitting on edge the entire read! Wow…..what a night!

Glad you got him. It is not that I don't like gators but one that big could be dangerous. In my opinion all the big ones needs to be take out.

Thanks for sharing.

Gators that size tend to have no fear and will approach a boat. That makes them dangerous. Just like any other wild animal that has no fear of humans, they need to be removed first. Others will grow to take their place.