State Record Gator Verified

This 10 1/2-footer was taken on Lake Seminole on Aug. 22. The hunters were (from left) Jeremy Dickman, Steve Dickman, Danny Dickman and Jeff Dickman.

Gator season came to an end on Oct. 5, but the 2015 season is certainly one that will be remembered.

An hour before this article went to the press, GON verified from WRD Biologist Greg Waters in Fitzgerald that a 14-foot, 1-inch gator taken on Lake Eufaula was reported to WRD and will go down as Georgia’s new state-record gator. The fortunate hunter was Mark Fletcher, of Palmetto.

This Wayne County gator came from the Altamaha River and was taken by (from left) Brandon Hall, Shannon Beasley and Ryan Beasley. The Zone 7 gator measured 12-feet, 7-inches long and weighed 630 pounds.

Mark killed his gator on Monday morning, Sept. 21 and did a quick, in-the-field measurement of 13-feet, 10 inches long. The gator was put in a cooler and pulled out for processing two days later. An official measurement was then taken and yielded 14-feet, 1-inch. Mark’s picture was published in last month’s GON, and his hunt story and photos are at www.gon.com.

Herschel Wise (left) and Nick Birchfield were able to take this 12-foot, 5 1/2-inch alligator from the Ogeechee River in Zone 8 on Sept. 9.

The former Georgia state record was a 13-foot, 10 3/4-inch gator taken in 2013 from Lake Seminole. 

Amazingly, another monster lizard was killed in 2015, this one measured 14 feet long and was taken from the Alapaha River in Lowndes County.

Debra Durden Sloan, of Americus, took this 8-foot, 5-inch gator on the Flint River near Reeves Landing.

To put these giants in perspective, the world-record alligator measured 15 feet, 9-inches and was taken in Alabama in 2014.

Kevin Teston, of Augusta, was hunting with his daughter Kacky in a Burke County pond on Sept. 13 when they killed this 9-foot, 1-inch gator.

Greg was compiling the overall 2015 Georgia gator information, including total harvest and hunter-success rates, when this issue went to press.

Andrew Brandon, 12, of Wisconsin, drew his first gator tag and made the trip south and killed this Lake Seminole gator that measured 9-feet, 3-inches long. Pictured are (from left): Donna Lesniak, Andrew Brandon, Tim Drover and Arynn Drover. They hunted with the Coweta County Gator Getters.

If you have gator photos, please send them to [email protected] or mail to Editor, 4331 Seven Islands Road, Madison, GA 30650.