Don’t go swimming in Mississippi. The first statewide alligator hunt has already yielded two record-setting catches. The first, a 723.5-pound gator, held the record for the heaviest ever caught in the state, beating the previous record of 697.5 pounds. “I yelled, ‘Oh, my gosh, we caught the Loch Ness Monster!’” said Beth Trammell, part of the five-person team that caught the alligator after a five-hour struggle. But they held the record for only two hours: several miles away, another group of hunters reeled in a 727-pound alligator.
