DELAND, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35) - It was a big catch on the St. Johns River in Volusia County, in the form of a 13-foot alligator. For comparison, that's about a foot shy of the biggest gator ever caught in Florida.
Billy Moody, of DeLand, nabbed the beast on Friday while hunting with his family. It's his second big catch of the year. He caught a larger alligator in August, a nearly 13-and-a-half-foot reptile in Lake George. The Moodys have tagged 16 gators this season. It took them an hour and 40 minutes to pull in this latest catch.
"That one we sold to a processor," Moody said. "There are processors all throughout the state. They buy the gators from you, they clean them, they get the hide, the meat, they use everything on the gator, and the sell the hides and sell the meat."
Moody still can get in another weekend in of catching giant gators. The hunting season ends next week on November 1.