AN American woman reeled in the catch of a lifetime after hunting down the largest alligator ever caught in the state of Mississippi.

    Tiffany Wienke, of Vicksburg, Mississippi, said she spent 20 hours at Bayou Pierre hunting for gator before she pulled in the nearly 14-foot (4.27-meter) behemoth.

    Wienke said she fought with the gator for two hours in order to reel it in and said she wasn’t even sure the catch would be successful.

    “He ran us — literally crashed us — into some trees and bank-to-bank.

    “He was pulling this boat full of people like it was nothing,” Wienke told WLBT.

    Wienke said at the end of the day she would’ve been happy with the “thrill of controlled chaos” but said she was overjoyed with the record-breaking catch.

    “We’re completely content with the fact that this will probably be the biggest alligator we’ll ever catch.

    “It’s not gonna keep us from going back. But we’re completely happy with this,” she said.

    Wienke’s husband along with four other friends helped her catch the gator.

    She said she caught the animal on a 20-foot boat and its head curled up at one end while its tail rested on another deck.

    The mammoth creature is only 0.32 centimeters bigger than the previous record, but that margin is still enough to earn it the title of biggest alligator in the state.

    Experts at the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks say they think the animal will eventually be dwarfed by other gators.

    “There’s definitely other alligators out there that can exceed this.

    “It won’t surprise me to see an alligator in the 14-to-15 foot range at some point,” said Mississippi’s Alligator Program Coordinator Ricky Flynt.

    Wienke’s competitors have to hope they have the same beginners luck she did.

    She said that this was only her third time ever gator hunting.

    Wienke sold the alligator will be processed for its meat and skin.(SD-Agencies)