Cumming Man Helps Catch 656-Pound Gator

A Forsyth County man and his cousin, avid hunters, recently nabbed themselves a nice prize—a huge alligator.

Kenny Padgett of Cumming and Ben Yarbrough of Buford on Sept. 29 caught the 656-pound, 12.5-foot gator on Lake Eufaula along the Georgia-Alabama line after 12 or 13 hours of roping and wrestling the beast, CBS Atlanta reports.

"It was overwhelming. I was shocked. It literally when it surfaced, it looked like something prehistoric. It looked like a dinosaur," Yarbrough told the TV station.

The men hooked the gator about 9 p.m., but weren't able to bring in their catch until about 11 a.m., the Forsyth County News reports. 

"He was so heavy, he started straight to the bottom and both fishing lines broke and the rope we had him tied with broke, so I tried to grab him, and I grabbed a leg, thought I could hold him, but he pulled me over the side, so I was in the water, sinking, trying to figure out what to do," Padgett told the newspaper.

The men and their families now plan on eating a lot of gator meat.

One of the largest reptiles in the world, the American alligator can be found from the southern border of Virginia and North Carolina down the eastern seaboard of the U.S. and westward along the Gulf of Mexico to Texas, according to Outdoor Alabama, in freshwater swamps, marshes, rivers, lakes and streams.

Would you try to catch an alligator? Have you or would you try alligator or other exotic meat? 

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