‘One heck of a lizard.’ Monster 625-pound, 13-foot alligator pulled from SC lake. Take a look

It was a big weekend at Cordray’s Processing and Taxidermy in Ravenel for the first weekend of South Carolina’s annual alligator hunt.

On Sunday they posted on Facebook that they had received 18 gators for processing.

Some on the smaller size, some about 11 feet and then there was the first one brought in on Saturday night. A whopper — 13 feet long and 625 pounds caught in the upper portion of Lake Marion, South Carolina’s premiere alligator lake.

Michael Cordray, who started the business about 30 years ago, said Saturday’s catch was among the top five alligators for length and weight he’s processed. The biggest was 825 pounds and 13 feet, 6 inches.

His business gets 90 to 100 alligators during the hunting season, which runs from Sept. 10 to Oct. 8.

The hunter was identified as Nick Gilbert. He could not be reached for comment.

One person posted on Cordray’s Facebook page, “Seen them leaving the ramp with him, one heck of a lizard. Pictures don’t do it justice.”

Another said, “That’s a freaking dinosaur!!”

According to the AZ Animals website, South Carolina’s biggest alligator catch was 13 feet 6 inches and 1,025 pounds caught by Maryellen Mara-Christian of Fitchburg, Mass. in Lake Moultrie.

She was described as an experienced wild game hunter, who caught the alligator on a guided hunt on Sept. 15, 2010. It took two hours to bring it in.

“They got 40 pounds of edible meat from the gator and left the body with a taxidermist to display this remarkable catch,” the website said..

South Carolina issues around 1,000 alligator tags a year and hunters are selected by lottery. Roughly 300 alligators are killed each season, according to the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources.

Last year, 309 alligators were taken across the state’s four regions, about the same number in each region, said Jay Butfiloski, DNR’s furbearer and alligator program coordinator. A couple are often 13 feet long.

He said it’s hard to say precisely the largest taken because public hunt records are available only since the state began the program in 2008.

“I have had some nuisance alligator agents claim to have taken ones that were 14’ over the years, but I cannot verify that,” he said.

Last year, 8,381 hunters applied for the public hunt.