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Most of us may never get the fortune — or even want one — to bag a record - breaking gator . But for gator hunter Robert " Tres " Ammerman , the feat was the secondly favourable Clarence Shepard Day Jr. in his life ( the first luckiest day being when he married his wife ) .
Ammerman has been huntingalligatorsin the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission ’s ( FWC ) annual statewide alligator crop for the past seven twelvemonth . But it was n’t until the last day of this yr ’s time of year that he found what he later teach was the state ’s long documented alligator , break a 13 - class record . [ Image of record - breaking gator ]
Robert “Tres” Ammerman poses with a state-record alligator, killed in 2010. The gator measured 14 feet, 3 1/2 inches (4.4 meters) long and weighed 654 pounds (297 kilograms)..
mensurate 14 feet , 3 1/2 inches ( 4.4 meters ) long and matter 654 pound ( 297 kilograms ) , the alligator snagged the hefty honour from a congeneric that measured 14 feet , 5/8 - inch ( just under 4.3 meters ) and was caught in Lake Monroe in 1997 by a nuisance - gator trapper . The fleshy alligator on record weighed 1,043 pound ( 473 kg ) and was taken from Orange Lake in 1989 . It was also taken as a " nuisance gator . " ( The FWC has a computer program in which certain trapper are permitted to remove nuisance gator , or those that pose a threat to people , pet , stock or property . )
Since 1988 , alligator hunters like Ammerman have taken part in the statewide harvest , which is a program for the sustainable use of a natural resourcefulness . Each year , gator management units are established with appropriate harvest home quotas to provide recreational opportunities for Floridians and non - residents to take up to two alligators per Trachinotus falcatus .
Ammerman and his two hunting partners – Sam White , his neighbor , and T.J. Schauf , his nephew – have the alligator just after midnight on Nov. 1 from the Lake Washington area of the St. Johns River in Brevard County .
" We skid up on him cheek - on – it ’s very hard to tell their sizing from that slant . As we get to within about 3 feet of him I could assure he was big , and just as he dim into the water , I threw my harpoon and hit him where the neck and headspring come together , " Ammerman said .
Thealligator acquire off , but attached to the harpoon was a plasterer’s float and about 50 foot of line . That ’s when Ammerman , White and Schauf got the ride of their lives .
" The line was spinning off my buoy , " he said . " He pulled us around the lake for about 45 minute before we tried to puzzle out him up to the side of the boat . "
But finally they subdued thebig alligator , tow it to shore and entered the record books .
