A Charles City, Iowa man along with two others on an alligator hunting trip in Georgia last month, landed a trophy gator, measuring eleven feet long and weighing 500 pounds.
"It was crazy, your adrenaline is just pumping, the whole time this is going on, you're holding on for deer life, and that pole is bent over, it's a rush and you get closer and closer to this gator, it's snapping and rolling and your heart is just racing, it's quite an experience, I've never had anything quite like it," said Jay Jung of Charles City.
He says it was a two hour, exhausting fight, to capture the beast and lug it into the boat.
Jung says the gator yielded 150 pounds of meat, which he says tastes like chicken, with a fishy consistency. He says the skin will be tanned, and may have some custom boots made.
Jung says he'd been trying to get a tag to hunt alligator for five years, and last month he was able to go to a Lake Seminole in Georgia, where he had success. The gator captured was estimated to be 50 years old.
He says the gators are considered a nuisance for residents who live near the lake. The Georgia Department of Natural Resources manages the hunting of alligators, to prevent over-harvesting.
Jung works for Farm Bureau Financial Services in Charles City. He is an avid hunter in Iowa, hunting deer, turkey and pheasant, and enjoys fishing too.