When a hunter spots a deer, the hunt generally ends in the time it takes him to pull the trigger. When a fisherman hooks a trophy bass, crappie or catfish, there is a brief struggle before the lunker is brought into the boat.

But four Selma hunters found out over the weekend that when you hook into a 600-pound alligator, don’t make any immediate plans.

The team of Jamie Thomas, Tad Lightfoot, Brad Utsey and David Cothran hit the water Saturday night with one tag on a mission to make it count. They did so when they cashed in a 13-foot one-inch, 604-pound monster.

Lightfoot and Thomas actually spotted the alligator Friday night but were unable to haul him in. Saturday was a completely different story.

The Friday scouting, Cothran said, paid off when the four men hit the water.

“We had a good idea of where to go because they had been out the night before and we got to the spot early and just sat around waiting for 8 p.m. We spotted him earlier, but we had to wait until 8 p.m. to comply with the laws,” Cothran said. “Jamie snagged him on the first cast of the night and it was like nothing we had ever seen.”

Thomas was using a treble hook attached to a rod and reel spooled with 65-pound test and a four-foot, 200-pound leader to haul the alligator in, which was no easy task.

Utsey said when the alligator was hooked, adrenaline took over and a fight that seemed to take an eternity and end in seconds all at the same time took place.

“We fought him for about 45 minutes, and it was the fastest 45 minutes of my life” Utsey said. “Then we got the harpoon in him and fought for another 10 or 15 minutes. It was very exciting and the adrenaline was wide-open.”

Thomas used the rod and reel to get the alligator closer to the boat, where Lightfoot also snagged him with another rod and reel as others were waiting with a harpoon. Utsey then hit the alligator with the harpoon for what Thomas said he thought was the end of the fight.

But the alligator was far from done.

“He went beserk and started pulling my 20-foot boat around like it was nothing,” Thomas said. “We shot him with a .410 and he went limp and we thought that was it.”

But Thomas said when they got the alligator near the boat he began thrashing again. A second shot delivered by Lightfoot sealed the deal.

The alligator was the longest to be brought in during the first of two weekends of Alabama’s alligator season. However, Utsey said it wasn’t the heaviest.

“Someone brought in a gator that was 12 feet 9 inches and weighed 661 pounds,” Utsey said. “They said we were 3 or 4 inches away from the state record.”

Though the fight was tough and dangerous, everyone said they will be ready again next year when the season rolls around.

“I’ve hunted deer and fished, and there is nothing like this. It’s something I’d definitely want to do again,” Utsey said.

“It was a once in a lifetime experience,” Cothrane said. “I’m still stunned by it. It was exciting. We are already making plans to pony up for next year so we can get more tags.”

Next year, Thomas said, the group will have a better idea of how to approach the hunt.

“If we learned anything, it’s that patience is the key,” he said. “Things have to happen at his time, not yours. You can’t rush into it.”

The final weekend of the special alligator hunting season in Dallas and Wilcox counties ends next weekend.