South MS men bag massive gator after chaotic hunt. ‘If it could go wrong, it went wrong’

A pair of Mississippi alligator hunters thought they were well-prepared when they set out on the Pascagoula River on Saturday. However, when the moment came to catch a giant, all of their preparation was turned upside down and what should have been a typical fight, if there is such a thing with alligators, turned into chaos.

“It was just a mess,” said Justin Ely of Vancleave. “If it could go wrong, it went wrong, which tends to happen when you have one that big you’re messing with.”

Ely said he had been running trotlines on the Pascagoula River in recent weeks and had seen some large gators in daylight hours. He said they seemed less skittish than they do at night during alligator season when hunting pressure is high. So, he and a hunting partner decided to try a daytime hunt.

The two had it planned out. They would head out Saturday afternoon and take two boats. One had all their hunting gear carefully organized in it.

“We had everything set up so nothing would get tangled, so we thought,” Ely said.

Alligator hunt was a family outing

Another boat was for their families so they could go and watch. His hunting partner, Matt Richardson of Vancleave, would drive the hunting boat and Ely would drive the family boat.

Ely said the family boat was not exactly organized. It had ice chests, bean bags and lots of snacks for the kids. The idea was for Ely to drive the family boat while running up the river to where they wanted to hunt and then the wives would drive and he would get in the boat with Richardson.

Their destination was the confluence of the Pascagoula River and Black Creek where they’d seen a large alligator. They also heard a large one was caught in the area the night before and figured it was the same alligator, but decided to check it out anyway.

Their plan was going well. That is, until it wasn’t.

Hunters surprised by an alligator

Ely and Richardson arrived in the area and immediately saw a big gator, but it caught them by surprise and they were still in separate boats.

“The whole time we’re thinking the big gator we’d seen was gone,” Ely said. “We weren’t expecting the big gator to still be there. We just weren’t expecting it.”

The alligator submerged and Ely started making blind casts into the water. On the third or fourth cast, he hooked it.

“I had one casting pole in the boat,” Ely said. “I don’t even know why I had it. I think I was rigging it up.”

So, now Ely is not only in the wrong boat, he has a massive alligator on the line. At this point, one might think Ely would get in the boat with Richardson, but that’s not how it unfolded.

Hunters’ plan comes unraveled

Instead, Richardson got in the boat with Ely and their families got in the boat that was intended for hunting. That also meant moving gear from the hunting boat into an already crowded boat.

“I should have hopped in the other boat,” Ely said. “That would have been easier, but we weren’t thinking at the time.

“We had no room to walk. We had to walk over coolers and bean bags. It was very hectic.”

The two got another line on the gator and the alligator responded by showing them how much power he had.

“He immediately took off and took us for a ride,” Ely said. “He literally sat on the bottom and then he’d take off. He would probably pull us 2-3 miles per hour, easy.”

Hunters see just how big their alligator is

The fight lasted nearly two hours and it wasn’t until the final minutes that the hunters realized what they were dealing with.

“When that head came up I said, ‘Oh, my gosh, he’s huge,’” Ely said. “I knew he was big, I just didn’t know how big.”

Despite the alligator breaking tackle, tangled hand lines and having to step over a boatload of bean bags and coolers, the hunters had their gator, but it wasn’t quite over. They towed the alligator to a sand bar where they would load him into the boat. When Ely stepped out, he sank up to his waist in mud.

Ely got out of that, and decided to remove the hooks and lines from the alligator so it could be moved more safely. As he pulled out a fillet knife, he sliced a finger open.

“We had blood pouring everywhere,” Ely said. “That was a fiasco in itself.”

With the help of several other people, Ely and Richardson got the alligator in a boat. It measured 12-feet, 3-inches long. Ely said he’s unsure of the weight because his scale only weighed up to 500 pounds and the alligator bottomed it out.

One thing Ely and Richardson probably are sure of is it is a hunt they won’t soon forget.

“It was crazy,” Ely said.