Trammell alligator
© Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks via NBC NewsThe crew with the Trammells held a state record for heaviest male alligator for only about an hour. It was soon broken by another catch.
Open season for alligator hunting in Mississippi began over the weekend with a few record-setting catches.

First-time hunters Beth and Rob Trammell were heading back into shore after a long day of hunting Sunday when they hooked what would turn out to be a state record-setting 723.5-pound male gator, according to The Clarion-Ledger.

"Oh, my gosh. It's the Loch Ness monster," Beth Trammell recalled saying when the beast surfaced after more than an hour of struggle.

It took another two hours and six people to bring up the hefty alligator completely. Upon official weigh-in, the gator turned out to be 26 pounds heavier than the previous record-setting male.

If this group's hours of struggle seemed exhausting, spending such a length of time - or more - reeling in such beasts seemed to be the norm.

Another Mississippi couple on the Pascagoula River ended up hooking at gator at 11:45 p.m. Friday, and finally brought the beast in after shooting it with a shotgun around 2 a.m. Saturday, WLOX-TV reported.

"We had, at one time, five deep sea fishing rods with 200 pound test line and five grownups couldn't bring the alligator up from the bottom," Michael Piper told the news outlet of the 650 to 700-pound alligator. "This particular one, just the sheer size of the gator, none of us had any idea. Once we hooked him he got under the water. And when he surfaced we were all shocked of the size of him."

aliigator
© via WLOXThis alligator was caught by the Michael Piper and his wife.
Dustin Bockman and his crew in Issaquena County spent four hours battling their monster, trying to get it into the boat. Eventually, they were so worn out they had to just sit and rest more than two hours with the now-dead gator on the line as they waited for help, according to The Clarion-Ledger.

alligator
© Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks via NBC NewsUpon its official weigh-in, Bockman’s alligator took over the state record.
"Tired, hungry, we'd been pulling on a 700-pound gator for four hours, and we really needed a nap at that point," Bockman, also a first-time gator hunter, told the newspaper.

alligator
© Dustin Bockman/FacebookDustin Bockman shows off his record-setting gator.
The struggle would be well worth it though as the 13-foot gator would weigh in a 727 pounds, beating the Trammells' record by just a few pounds.

Check out this footage of the gator caught in Claiborne County:


NBC News reported that the alligator hunters would be processing the gators for meat.