It turns out I was wrong about how big the gator was.
When they got around to measuring it and weighing it what we found out is that it is 13' 7" long and weighed 764 pounds..............and that was 24 hours after we caught it!
It was so big that the professional skinner did not skin it but instead called a couple of taxidermist that specialize in such. They wanted it because of it's unusual size so they can make one of those big mounts that you see sold for thousands of dollars.
Ended up that we got more for it whole than I could have rendered by cleaning it and selling the skin and meat in the market.
One other interesting thing I found. The following link is to the Florida FWC list of the largest gators harvested in the state sense 1977 when they started keeping records.
If this is correct our gator will be #7.
http://myfwc.com/GATORS/facts/largest.htm
And most likely the largest harvested during this years hunts..............
I wish I had realized how big it was when we caught it because I would have gotten better pictures! I'm not in one of them!
When they got around to measuring it and weighing it what we found out is that it is 13' 7" long and weighed 764 pounds..............and that was 24 hours after we caught it!
It was so big that the professional skinner did not skin it but instead called a couple of taxidermist that specialize in such. They wanted it because of it's unusual size so they can make one of those big mounts that you see sold for thousands of dollars.
Ended up that we got more for it whole than I could have rendered by cleaning it and selling the skin and meat in the market.
One other interesting thing I found. The following link is to the Florida FWC list of the largest gators harvested in the state sense 1977 when they started keeping records.
If this is correct our gator will be #7.
http://myfwc.com/GATORS/facts/largest.htm
And most likely the largest harvested during this years hunts..............
I wish I had realized how big it was when we caught it because I would have gotten better pictures! I'm not in one of them!
Unless it was a danger they didn't have time to mess with it. I never would do anything because I knew he was close to a state record and sure did not want to kill a state record gator and not be able to report it. 
Finally he disappeared so I figure he died of old age. If you have never seen a BIG gator up close you really don't realize how big they are. 