A hunting party working the Alabama River south of Jackson brought in one of the larger alligators taken during Alabama’s regulated season, a 12-foot animal weighing 537 pounds.
Tyler Dees of Deer Park said the capture took three separate hooks before the alligator could be secured and brought aboard. Mike Odom of Citronelle set the first hook, Dees set the second, and a third was placed by another member of the group. The tag used for the animal belonged to Dees’ brother, Thomas Dees.
Not the Group’s Biggest
The team, which hunts together under the nickname “The Real Dream Team,” has taken part in Alabama’s alligator hunt for several years. Dees said the 537-pound animal, taken on a Saturday in mid-August, was not the largest the group has landed.
How Alabama’s Alligator Season Works
Alligator hunting in Alabama is tightly limited. Hunters must win a randomly drawn tag, and each tag permits a single animal, taken within a designated zone and a narrow window of dates. The Southwest Alabama zone covers private and public waters in the Mobile-Tensaw Delta region and stretches of the Alabama and Mobile river systems, drawing hunters from Mobile, Washington, Baldwin and Clarke counties each summer.
The season ended the Sunday following the capture, closing out another year of the state’s limited hunt.