Kayaker recalls terrifying moment 360-pound alligator chased him: 'I just paddled and paddled'

A Georgia kayaker feared for his life Monday night when he came across a 10-foot-long, 360-pound alligator while fishing, WRDW reports.

"I was just going down the bank fishing and all of a sudden about 10 feet away I seen the big gator," said Bo Storey, of Augusta.

Storey was reportedly practicing for a bass fishing tournament when he saw the reptile inch toward his kayak. His first instinct was to get away as quickly as possible, he told the station.

"I just paddled and paddled," he recalled. "It came within probably five feet of the back of my kayak, like up on a plane surging, coming at me, and I just nonstop paddled 'til I got to my truck."

Though Storey paddled to safety, another resident in the area purportedly ran into the alligator hours later. Robby Amerson told the WRDW that he was driving along the road when he noticed that Richmond County officers had pulled over on the side.

When Amerson learned that police were trying to figure out how to handle the same colossal creature that had chased Storey, he called his friend Trey Durant, who had an alligator hunting license, for help. The pair and law enforcement took nearly three hours to catch the alligator, according to WRDW.

Durant later posted a picture of the reptile — which was killed after being deemed a nuisance — on Facebook, drawing nearly 100 comments from stunned users.

"That’s a big one!" one person wrote. "Are you going to have some boots made?"

"You killed it??" another asked. "Wow. You're a real hero."