Two Mississippi men nab record-breaking alligator

VICKSBURG, Miss., Sept. 2 (UPI) -- A record-breaking alligator was reeled in on Tuesday in the waters of the Mississippi River.

The almost 800 pound gator was captured near Vicksburg, Mississippi. The alligator was 13.5 feet in length.

That behemoth barely beats the record that was set over the weekend, when a group of men snagged a gator that was more than 13 feet in length and also weighed 756 pounds. Robert Mahaffey and his friends caught that one in the Mississippi River, also near Vicksburg.

"I reached down and grabbed my rod, Jay stepped out of the way and there is this huge head sitting on top of the water."

Mahaffey was also the fisherman who caught last year's record-breaking alligator.

Mississippi researchers said they don't think the gators there are getting bigger, rather people are now finding ones that had been hidden until recently.