Keith Fancher went on his first alligator hunt Friday night. He came away with an 838-pounder -- the largest ever caught in one of Alabama's sanctioned gator hunts.
Fancher, of Shelby County, and six family members and friends on a pontoon boat caught the 14-foot, 2-inch long beast on the Alabama River in Dallas County, near Camden.
"That is the most excitement I think I've ever had in my entire life. . . . It was a blast," Fancher said. "To be able to share that experience with my family just added to it," he said.
J.C. Peeples, 40, lead animal control officer for Shelby County and Fancher's cousin, snagged the gator on the back of the head with the first pair of hooks from casting a fishing line about 9:30 p.m. Friday after spotting the gator in the river. Then the struggle began, Peeples said.
"He took us through trees and brush along the bank line," Peeples said. "It's definitely an adrenaline rush."
More than an hour later the seven-member crew was able to get the gator secured and finished off, Peeples said. "Without all seven of us, we would have never gotten this gator. . . . No one by themselves could."Alabama Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries biologist Chris Cook, who witnessed the weigh-in, told Press-Register outdoor reporter Jeff Dute that the alligator was so big it stretched a backing cable on the scales. The cable had to be replaced.
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