The famous quote of the movie Jaws is “You will need a larger boat”. This line is told by Chief Martin Brody (played by Roy Scheider) in Quint (played by Robert Shaw).
The line is used to emphasize the failure of their current boat when collided with a shark.
For Zach Hoffman, Jan Gianello and Justice Sargood, it was not a larger ship they needed when on 31 May. They caught a huge Burmese python.
They needed a larger band measurement.
From left to right, Jan Gianello, Zach Hoffman and Justice Sargood pose with 16 feet, 8 -inch Burmese Python woman, which they caught near Everglades in 2025. 31 May.
“While working in construction, I see measurements very well, so when the numbers started throwing around that length, I knew they were missing what we had caught,” Hoffman said about £ 105 in an invasive snake. “Initially we measured the 15 -foot band measure we were lying and it wasn’t long enough. Then I did a measurement with a 25 -foot band. When I read the number loudly, we couldn’t believe it.”
They measured python 16 feet, 8 inches. He weighed 105 pounds without stomach or egg contents.
Not a record in Florida for Burmese python but close
“Two hundred inches on a button,” Hoffman said.
The snake was caught near the city of Everglades, Hoffman said. They caught him at 12:30 p.m. On the way home after an unconventional night, how to hunt Florida’s most desirable invasive species.
“We decided to check last place in our ride at home.” Hoffman said. “A few miles, the judge said (from the front truck seat)” Is it a shadow? “.
Hoffman was in the back seat.
Florida Python Hunter: “This is not a shadow”
“I looked up and said,” It’s not a shadow. “We couldn’t even stop before the truck, we jumped and ran to the ditch halfway on the road,” Hoffman said.
He did not hesitate to Hoffman that justice grabbed Python behind his head and began to fight the snake.
“Jan and I controlled the rest of the body, so it didn’t cause too much,” Hoffman said. “As soon as we controlled the snake, it was ethically sent. Then began to get involved in what we had just caught.”
Not quite a record, but to put it mildly, a lot of catch.
More: When Florida’s Python Challenge is for summer, look at the biggest Burmese pythons ever caught
“We were ecstasy,” said Hoffman, who is 25 and comes from Boston. “We called friends who knew they were hunting, we sent texts to the family. It was a big thing for us.”
The photo made rounds on social media, including the Hoffman’s Instagram page @swfl_reaper.
Hoffman said the hunting python experience paid off for this catch.
“These are none of our first arrows. I have been hunting for two years for two years. I introduced justice a year ago and Jan to sport, where we finally caught our previous largest (10 feet, 2 inches). This snake blown all our best snakes out of the water,” Hoffman said.
This is a 16 -foot leader of a 8 -inch Burma Piton, which in 2025 31 May. Jan Gianello, Zach Hoffman and Justice Sargood were caught near Everglades.
Hoffman estimated that as a group, he caught more than 100 pythons, Gianell and Sargoodwe.
“Justice and Jan struck it dramatically, inserted 25 hours a week into Python hunting, while I can only go with them at night or two a month,” Hoffman said. “They earned this snake and, hopefully, was also a fwc Python hunting program.”
After the murder, the snake was demolished when its meat was donated and consumed among friends and family members. Hoffman said the skin would be tanned and placed in the house.
It was an unforgettable experience for a commercial plumber from Boston, the state of Massachusetts, who has lived Swfl for four years.
“We need more people to remove these snakes,” Hoffman said. “We will never be able to stop them, but we can have a big tooth adversely affected by their natural wildlife. But since these snakes can cause an ecological threat to our natural resources, development is the biggest threat.”
The longest Python record was caught in southwest Florida
Python hunters captured the longest Burmese python, ever measured in 2023. July 10, in the Great Kiparis National Reserve Eastern Collier County.
The monster snake was 19 feet long.
This article initially appeared at Palm Beach Post: Burmese Python, 16 feet long, caught trio in Florida Everglades