Woman hooks 1025-pound alligator with fishing pole

When it comes to hooking reptiles with fishing poles, the only story that rings familiar is a tale my uncle tells of catching a medium-sized turtle while trolling through a pond.

While I have heard my fair share of great fishing tales and exploits, never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that a person could successfully hook and catch a 1000-pound alligator.

Well, a Massachusetts woman named Mary Ellen Mara-Christian has now made my wildest dreams come true.

Hunting for reptiles with her husband and friends on Lake Moultrie, South Carolina, Mara-Christian hooked the catch of her life in a 13-foot, 1025-pound alligator.

Check out the CNN image of Mara-Christian and the gator here.

For two straight hours, Mara-Christian battled the monstrous creature before successfully reeling it in close enough to be secured.

“Your heart’s just pumping and pumping,” Mara-Christian said. “He was enormous. You could see this part of him coming out of the water, his big belly, then you saw his head. His head had to come out for me to shoot him.”

And shoot him they did, as the alligator hunters needed eight shots and multiple stabs with a knife to finally put the massive gator down.

“We had to stab him a couple of times to break his spinal cord,” Mara-Christian said.

In order to process the alligator for its meat – alligator meat is said to taste like a delicious mix of chicken and fish – the reptile was transported via tractor to a processing plant nearby.

Mara-Christian indicated that she will have much of the gator meat transported back to Massachusetts and the that the alligator itself will be returning with her, just stuffed and mounted

Alligator Hunting in South Carolina

Alligator hunting is a one-month seasonal sport in South Carolina where hunters are allowed to kill the creatures if they can successfully secure it and bring it aboard their boat.

Only 1,000 permits are available for the hunting season that runs from the second Saturday in September to the second Saturday in October, this year being September 11th to October 9th.

Per the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources website:

Alligators must be secured and brought to shore or alongside boat before dispatch. No shooting of free swimming or basking alligators is allowed in this program. No rifles are allowed, but handguns and bangsticks are permitted for dispatch. No bait, baited hooks, set hooks, or pole hunting is allowed (see regulations for more information about methods).

Only one (1) alligator can be taken per permit. Alligator must be four (4) feet or greater in length.

Others may assist permittee, but all participants (including permittee) must be licensed SC hunters.

Alligators may be taken in public waters, but not on Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs) or USFWS Refuges, and on private land where permission is granted. Public alligator season permits cannot be used on lands enrolled in the Private Lands Alligator Program.

Alligator meat can be kept, but not sold. Hides and parts may be sold according to regulation.