Crestview, FL woman lands 11-foot, 426-pound alligator on Choctawhatchee

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It took three hooks, two shots with a bang stick and a lot of reeling, but Brittany Ruskowski got her gator.

The alligator, weighed at The Boathouse Marina in Destin, tilted the scales at 426.4 pounds and measured 11 feet.

“The head was about 26 inches long,” Ruskowski said, noting she has plans to taxidermy the head and feet.

Although this was a huge gator, it was not the first for Ruskowski, who lives in Crestview. She got her first gator in 2019. It was about the same size, just a bit heavier, weighing about 460 pounds.

As for this gator, she and her husband, Travis, and Jason Phillips went out Aug. 30 before the storm came through.

“I’m the one that gets the tags every year,” Ruskowski said.

Brittany Ruskowski landed this 11-foot, 426.4-pound gator on the Choctawhatchee River. There for the weigh-in at The Boathouse Marina are her husband, Travis, and Jason Phillips. All three were on the gator hunt.
“It’s my motivation that triggers the entire event. They go with me to make it happen, but they are not as excited about it as I am,” she said.

Hunting on the Choctawhatchee River in Walton County, they got on the river about 8 p.m. and landed the gator a couple of hours later.

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