PORT GIBSON, Miss. (WGNO) — There’s a new record breaking alligator in Mississippi.
According to the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks, the new male alligator weighed 686 pounds and was 13 feet, 7 7/8 inches long.
That 7/8 inch is important. The previous record holder was just an eighth of a inch shorter.
Tiffany Wienke of Vicksburg was hunting with a group on the Bayou Pierre near Port Gibson when she caught it.
“When we put him in the boat we knew he was big,” Wienke told Jackson TV station WJTV. “Bigger than any of the six of us good seeing it, caught or hoped to catch but the thought of a record never crossed our minds.”
Mississippi alligator hunting season runs until September 5, so there’s still time for more record catches.