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Studly critter! 💪 Archery tackle or??

Very cool! Going on a trip for them is on my bucket list.

Big un!!

A mixture of tuna rods with 400 lbs test using weighted trebles, harpoons(basically stainless heat treated cylinder points called “darts” that fall off shaft but have wire to rope to float/buoy), crossbow sometimes but not this one, a big snatch hook on rope, and a noose with float,

This one had the baddest attitude any of us had messed with and guide takes some of the biggest every year. It also went into a deep channel. Deepest spot on lake, 25’. Made it very very difficult. It fought almost 4 hrs. Longest prior for guide was 2 and my 11’ from 2012 was 1.25 hrs max. Big ones usually tire out completely too. This one didn’t.

After it’s secured on big lines we shot it point blank with a 45 3x in head. It dove and fought another hour. At the end we had all the devices in it from boat. We had 5-6 rounds in its head and it still fought some. Now into day 2 without sleep we didn’t know what to do so we towed it backwards to drown it. It just wouldn’t die.

Start applying asap, the 13’ers all over news that weigh 850 lbs are more like 12’ 5-600lbs. SC has two premier zones and season is only 14 years old. Big ones getting rare and once gone they won’t be back sadly.

This one was 100 yards to swimming beach at park. A swimmer lost an arm some years back. Had to sweet talk the processor into checking stomach. Waiting for results now.

Big ones taste like tough chewy bad fishy pork with hard chunks of fat marbled in that you can’t chew. I donated this one. Honestly, my 11’ was 400lbs and I got 35 lbs of meat of it. The legs, cheeks, and tail are only meat. Once hard fat is cut out you don’t get much. You’d get more off a 6’ probably and it would be a lot better to eat.

Hard to say, trying to figure out how to get him aged. He was ancient judging by teeth deformation. The teeth regrow every 6mos or so. This one the sockets were missing or ground down to almost nothing. Also had severe overbite and some crazy scars on jaw. They can live past 100.

Agreed, really cool.
Congrats!

Osky

wow! Very cool, congrats

Green,
From Marion? It is a lot of fun.

GreggH

A bad looking gator there.

Glad they exist, somewhere else.

Lotta things can kill a man,
only a few can kill and eat a healthy one.
The ones you can't see coming creep me out.

Godzilla

We cut up a big one many years ago and put it in a cooler of ice immediately. It stunk the house up for two days after cooking... even I couldn't eat it. Never again.

Don't suppose you could catch a couple of those and transplant them in the Rio Grande? Might work better than a border wall 😉

the best eating ones are 8ft and shorter for me

Looks good.

I thank God I live in Alaska. Big man/meat eating lizards, snakes and sharks scare me. I will take a bear and our skitters any day.

Dang! I'll bet he ate a few pigs and deer in his day!