Last Update:9/21/2007 10:04:44 PM
Web Editor: Teresa Southern
Right now dove and deer are not safe in the woods.
Bow hunters can take aim at the animals.
But a couple of guys brought in quite a monster of different sorts.
They dragged him out of the Ocmulgee river right at the Twiggs – Bleckley county line.
At a taxidermy shop in Pulaski county you’ll find stuffed skunk’s boars and bass.
FROG MULLIS, TAXIDERMIST
"It’s a lot of hard work."
Frog is the human taxidermist who runs the place.
FROG MULLIS, TAXIDERMIST
" When we were kids we all had nicknames and that’s the one I wound up with."
The guy with the amphibian name jumped at the chance to go hunt big reptiles with his buddy Jarret Hill in the Ocmulgee river.
They snuck up on an eleven foot seven inch gator.
Jarret waited for three years to get the chance to hunt these creatures in a state lottery.
FROG MULLIS, TAXIDERMIST
"Jarret shot it with a crossbow and got an arrow to him… he stayed down for three hours and twenty minutes."
JARRET HILL, GATOR HUNTER
" I think everybody in the boat looked at each other as an ohh my gosh moment when he stuck his head out of the water."
SUZANNE LAWLER, EYEWITNESS SPORTS
"Frog and Jarret spent twelve hours going after this thing. Jarret
didn’t crawl into the house until six twenty the next morning. You’d
think his wife would be a little upset…. but naaa he’s got her
covered."
JARRET HILL, GATOR HUNTER
"My wife has put in for a purse, I think she’s as excited as I am about
getting her purse. With what’s left over I may get a wallet and a belt.
"
The guys figure their beast weighed about 400 pounds.
So now with the head for a trophy maybe it’s time Jarret got a nickname of his own.
JARRET HILL, GATOR HUNTER
" I guess it would have to be Gator. "
Now these guys figure they have some bigtime bragging rights but their also pretty honest.
The gator had a really thin body and he didn’t have a lot of teeth.
Jarret and Frog figure he had some years on him.
DNR says gators can live up to fifty years.
Gator season lasts until October 7th this year.
The state record for a gator caught in Georgia stands at thirteen feet six inches.
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