Record Night of Gators in Alabama

iSportsman Staff

Alabama’s alligator season just delivered a night for the record books. Wildlife officials confirmed that 23 gators were harvested last week in the West Central Alligator Management Area—an unprecedented haul that officials credit to an increase in tags issued this year.

The headliner was a massive 13-foot, 7-inch alligator tipping the scales at 620 pounds. The beast was wrangled by Eli Beck, his father Christopher Beck, and uncles Ryan Speir and Brian Miller. While impressive, the gator still fell shy of the state’s all-time heavyweight champion, a 1,011.5-pound monster pulled from the Alabama River in 2014.

Alligator hunts in Alabama are tightly managed, requiring a special license and limited to five designated zones across 17 southern counties. The West Central zone, where the Beck family made their catch, spans public and private waters in Monroe, Wilcox and Dallas counties.

Officials with Alabama Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries said the controlled hunts balance opportunity with conservation, allowing hunters to utilize meat, hides and other parts while keeping gator populations healthy. With check stations open nightly from 8 p.m. to 7 a.m. during the season, hunters have plenty of opportunity to try their luck at landing their own river monster.

For more on the record-setting night, read the full story here. To see more photos of some of the gators caught, visit the Alabama Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries Division’s Facebook page.