Historic family catch: Dad and his 11- and 9-year-old sons land 14-foot, 700-pound alligator
Get your teeth into the sensational story of how this family caught a huge beast.
On the first day of the season, Blake Daugherty, a proud father, went with his two sons—aged 11 and 9—on what would become an unforgettable hunting venture in north-central Mississippi. Their audacious drive and steady nerves paid off when they hooked a colossal 14-foot alligator that tipped the scales at close to 700 pounds.
After spotting the beast in the water, a gruelling tug-of-war that tested their strength and teamwork. Eventually, the beast was finally subdued, and the massive creature’s girth and heft stunned even the seasoned hunters who rushed to lay their eyes on the prehistoric-looking creature that had warned them with “a dinosaur-like roar.”
“We knew then, that’s the king of the swamp,” Daugherty said to USA Today. “He’s letting everybody know ‘I’m the big dog.’”
“We really started wearing him out,” hunting partner Jimmy Appleton told local news. “I could feel him rolling and shaking his head. I knew he was a good one. He was dragging my 17-foot boat around like it was nothing.”
After the catch, the boys beamed beside their father as they posed for photographs: “Just having that experience to know not only what to do and to be able to have a clean path in the boat,” Daugherty said when asked on the trick behind catching the animal. “Everybody has a job they do so we’re not getting in each other’s way.”
Once adorned with snapshots and proud grins, the alligator was properly processed in line with local regulations at Red Antler Processing, where the gator weighed in at 662 pounds and measured 14 feet, 1/4 inches.
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National Geographic writes that a typical male stretches 10 to 15 feet (3–5 m), with half that length made up by its powerful tail, with specimens weighing up to about 1,000 pounds (though averages are around 500–600 pounds, or 227–272 kg); females are generally smaller.
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