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Lane Stephens, a contracted alligator trapper with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission says his latest catch — a 14-foot behemoth captured Aug. 11 — rivaled the longest gator ever captured in Florida.
(Lane Stephens)
Florida alligator trapper Lane Stephens showed off his skills on Saturday by pulling a stunningly large 14-foot gator from Lake Talquin this week after homeowners who lived on the lake reported it as a “nuisance.”
Stephens, a licensed trapper hired by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, was shocked by the size of the gator, though he’s no stranger to the creatures.
“I didn't know this gator was going to wind up being as large as it was,” he told the Daily News by phone on Thursday. “Obviously I didn't know it was going to be 14 foot.”
Stephens has harvested 30 alligators this year, and has pulled four over 11 feet long from that lake in the last few months alone.
He was dispatched to the area after a resident who lived by the lake called the government agency and expressed concerns at the gator’s size and the potential danger it could caused.
State policy says a nuisance alligator over 4 feet long must be killed, while those under 4 feet can be relocated to other areas.
Capturing the creature was a five-hour ordeal. Stephens caught the alligator with a baited hook, which took an hour and a half, and then it took two hours for him to rope it in and get it in the right position to kill it with a 6-foot pole.
To read the rest of this New York Daily News story, CLICK HERE.
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