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Harris County residents Jeana and Cody Quirk recently bagged a large 12-foot alligator on Lake Seminole. The couple had been in pursuit of the alligator since the beginning of the season in August, and after several near misses, finally caught the behemoth on Saturday, September 16. This was not the couple’s first time hunting gators, with Cody and his brother taking a 12’ 6” specimen on Lake Harding in 2021.

This is not the only large gator claimed on Lake Seminole this hunting season, nor the largest, with Meaghan Bailey of Carrollton taking the largest of the season, a 13’ 3” 675-pound trophy animal.

Alligator season in Georgia is brief, this year beginning at sunset on August 18, and ending on Monday, October 2. Hunters must apply in advance to potentially draw a tag for an alligator quota hunt; according to Quirk’s article submission to Georgia Outdoor News, it took seven years for her to finally draw a tag. Alligators were listed as endangered in 1967 due to overhunting diminishing their population. Conservation efforts successfully caused a population rebound, allowing them to no longer require protection by 1987; nonetheless, hunts are much more tightly regulated today than in the past.