Florida man bags 1,000-lb. alligator

A South Florida man managed to snag a near record-breaking alligator while hunting.

Jim Howard told the Miami Herald he was on Lake Okeechobee one night when he spotted some “giant” alligators in the water.

Howard, who had a permit as part of a state gator-hunting lottery, used beef lung to lure the gators to the surface.

“I leave it out for about two days so it’s extra stinky. That way the gator smells it,” he told the Herald.

His ultimate prize: a 12-foot, 1,000-pound gator. That falls just shy of the state record, which weighed 1,043 pounds and was more than 14 feet long.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s Statewide Alligator Harvest program has a quota of two alligators per permit.

Howard told the Herald this extra-large catch meets his quota.