John Hammond, one of several python hunters participating in Florida’s Python Elimination Program, single-handedly caught an 18-foot Burmese python, the biggest ever captured in the program.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission posted a photo and news of the 18-foot catch on Facebook Tuesday afternoon.

The previous program record was a 17-foot, 5-inch python nabbed by Kyle Penniston early last month. That one was the third caught in the program that measured more than 17 feet. It weighed 120 pounds. Hammond’s python weighed 150 pounds, according to Spectrum News 13.

Incidentally, the biggest python caught before the elimination program began was 18 feet, 8 inches in May 2013 in rural Miami-Dade County.

Hammond was deep in the Florida Everglades on Sunday morning when he spotted the huge python.

Also on FTW Outdoors: Lone hunter captures record python stretching over 17 feet

“I figured at that point it was either write it down and say I saw one or pick it up and say I got one,” Hammond told Spectrum News 13.

“So I grabbed its head, got wrapped up from the waist down and then we fell over, and we laid there for about 30 minutes or so,” said Hammond. “And I had her head – that face – right there the whole time while she was constricting me from the waist down.”

His only worry was the python getting away. He eventually subdued and killed the invasive species.

The Python Elimination Program run by the South Florida Water Management District is designed to protect the Everglades from pythons and limit the negative impacts on its ecosystem. Pythons, an invasive species, have become the apex predator of the Everglades.

The removal program gives python hunters cash incentives for catching pythons. The water district pays $50 per python up to 4 feet and an additional $25 for each foot over that. So Hammond’s catch was worth $400.

Hammond told Spectrum News 13 he planned to skin the snake and put it on display at his fossils store in Winter Park.

Photo courtesy of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

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