Mississippi's weight record falls -- twice -- in first weekend of alligator season

9/3/2013
ASSOCIATED PRESS

JACKSON, Miss.  — During the first weekend of Mississippi’s alligator season a hunting party held the weight record for an alligator taken in the state. But the record only lasted about an hour.

Beth Trammell took a 13-foot, 5.5-inch long, 723.5-pound alligator early Sunday in Issaquenna County in the Yazoo Diversion Canal. It broke the previous weight record of 697.5 pounds.

However, Mississippi Alligator program coordinator Ricky Flynt tells WLBT TV that one hour after he certified Trammell’s record, he certified another record-breaking gator.

Dustin Bockman, a UPS driver from Vicksburg, took the 727-pound alligator in the Mississippi River in Claiborne County. It was 13-feet, 4.5-inches long.

The current length record remains 13-feet, 6.5-inches. That alligator was taken on the Pascagoula River in 2008.