Snakes

[mperry]

I read about this on another forum. Anyone have any good snake stories. Where I live in Indiana we don't really see a lot of poisonous snakes but I'm told we have copperheads and timber rattlers. I've never really had a close call but some of the places I fish I have had them practically crawling all over me. Just wondering if anyone had any good stories.

[EJHick]

Heh...yes sir I have a good story. First off I am not to fond of anything that doesn't have legs(besides fish)....

So I am paralleling this bank with a small crankbait, i was probably 6 feet from the bank. So I'm catching fish, I am tearing them up, my mind is on nothing but fishing. As I am moving down this bank, I pass under this bush overhanging...I duck, cast, flop(that was not the sound of my bait hitting the water). The flop was a 4.5'long black snake that decided he wanted to take a little boat ride. PETA people I would not read on...Luckily I had my paddle out and after a little dance on the front deck I decided to take my golfing skills to the next level. At this point this boy is flared up and ready to go. I knock the sun of a gun..wham!...hits the inside of my boat. Well crap, so I try scooping him up with the battle to throw him back in the water. Heh bad idea he came shooting up at me and then that is when I screamed like a little girl, jumped from the front deck to the top of my motor cowl in one fluid motion. So he hung out on the front deck and finally eased his way back in the water. I probably looked pretty funny up on my motor cowl, but like I said before, I am not so fond of snakes...at all!

[bigbassman2]

I hoked one this past summer

[mperry]

That was pretty good. Glad you didn't get hurt and glad it was only a black snake. I always think about reelfoot and all the tales of water moccasins hanging off of the cyprus trees.

[jcb]

In the early 70s I was wade fishing with my Dad, and we came across a sycamore that had been knocked over by the last high water.

The entire root system was in about 4-5 feet of water, creating a perfect hole for redeye. Using go-devils, we began pulling redeye after redeye--big SLABS up to 10" long--out of this hole.

As usual, I was "stringer boy" for Dad. I had a chain stringer with the top loop around my belt buckle. Each time one of us would catch a fish, I'd add it to the stringer.

When you get 20 hawg live redeye on a stringer tied to your belt loop, and you're standing in water up to your chest, you learn to ignore the sensation of them pulling against your waist. The more fish you put on there, the more they pull, the more you ignore it.

The bite finally slowed down and we decided to hit the shore and walk up to the next hole. I took a few steps up to a shoal and pulled the stringer up so it wouldn't drag on the rocks.

When I did, my day was made considerably more interesting when I also pulled up a 4-foot cottonmouth that had made a meal of several redeye and was clamped down tight on his next victim.

Later on, my dad asked me if I was scared. I told him, no, I just hadn't climbed a sycamore tree in a while and I was feeling nostalgic.

Seriously, I threw that stringer as far as I could faster than the speed of light. The fact that it was still attached to my shorts seemed a minor detail at the time. Besides, they were probably stained anyway.

I took the rest of the summer off from wading the creek.

JCB

[Trophycats]

After spending 22 years in the army and traveling all over the world..I have found out there are 4 types of snakes you do not mess with..

Big ones
Little ones
Live ones
Dead ones

[Viking]

Several years ago we were fishing Dunn's Creek in Florida. As we were motoring down the creek my buddy saw some people he knew bluegill fishing. They were tied up under some low overhanging trees, so we pulled in and tied up to talk. After a few minutes I notice a large snake right over thier heads. I yelled something, I forget what it was, but it was cool to warn them. They just laughed and said that there were snakes everywhere around there, in fact over my head, too. I looked up and about two foot above me was a BIG ole snake looking down at me. I yelled something else, I forget what it was, but I don't think it was very cool. Anyway the snake had a chuckle and just went on back to sleep. I ain't afraid of anything, but when you first see a snake, pucker time.

[jeremys]

This isn't a fishing story but a snake story....
Me and my buddy were riding 4 wheelers about 5 yrs ago, we turned to come down this chip & seal road and seen this snake streched out across the road, I just figured it was a black snake or a cow sucker so we stopped and walked up to it, we got within about 5 foot and I looked at the tale, it was about a 6 foot rattler. It never moved or rattled or anything, it didn't have a care in the world. About that time ole' boy with about 4 teeth in his head rolled up, looked at it and said stand back boys, and ran over it. It really pissed me off because it was just sunning and would have moved on it left alone.
I was star-struck because I had always heard the horror stories about rattlers attacking people, this one wasn't like that.

[MarkW]

LMAO-----I hear Ya!!!!

[steve604]

When I was a kid I had job a boat company. A local policeman came in and asked if he could buy a boat. Normally the owner only sold to dealers, but this guy was a cop, (you know, low pay, long hours, puts his life on the line for us, that kind of thing) so the boss sold him one. A few weeks later he brought his new boat back and asked if we did repairs. We figured he had scratched the gel coat or something simple. Nope, not that simple. It seems our friend had hung his lure on a tree limb and had pulled up under the tree to get his lure back. When he jurked on the line a snake bailed out of the tree and landed in the boat with him. Now this guy was not a small man, and was a veteran policeman. I'm sure he had his share of fights, gun battles, bad guys, ect. So his courage was not in question. But it seems, like most of us, he had a thing about snakes. He had put six 38 caliber holes through the floor and out the hull of his brand new baby. When he told us the story we all started laughing. But when we noticed he was red faced and NOT laughing, we stopped kinda quick! The boss did ask him if he got the snake. His only answer was "Go to hell". The boss thanked him for the floatation test and we fixed his boat for free. It just goes to show, Mr. NoShoulders can make us all act like a little girl. But of course, I'VE never been known to do any high steppin' in the tall grass upon seeing a harmless black snake. (Yeah right).

Steve

[charlie1]

When I was about 10 years old me and a buddy were fishing down at the creek and noticed a big black snake sunning on the bank. Well, we were both cub scouts and naturally read about how to use a forked stick to pin their head against the ground so you could pick them up. After watching "Jim" wrestling the anaconda on Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom I didn't want him to be one up on us, so we proceeded to pin its head down. That wasn't enough. My friend suggested I pick it up, reminding me that all you had to do was grab it right behind the head and squeeze real tight. So I did. Then he (my buddy) let go of the stick. The snake was longer than I was tall. With its tail on the ground flailing around the snake started trying to back its head out of my grip with its "neck" muscles. I quickly noticed the snakes neck muscles were stronger than my 10 year old grip. The harder I squeezed, it seemed, the better the snake was making progress getting its mouth closer and closer to my hand, all the while smacking me in the legs with its tail. Being an idiot, I kept trying to do the same thing that didn't work before, squeeze harder. I sure wasn't going to let go, even though that makes perfect sense. As I began to scream, cry and jump up and down like a little girl, my buddy counseled me to "squeeze harder",laughing, as he volunteered to run for help, I guess because he figured the snake might just kill me. I politely suggested he stick around, because I was pretty sure he was going to die, right after I figured how to get rid of the snake, which by now had grown to mythic proportions. In a stroke of genius, I decided the best way to rid myself of the deadly beast was to just throw it as fast and as hard as I could - directly at my buddy. It worked. I didn't get a chance to kill him, he was running for help. I haven't picked up a snake since.

[R19]

I have got a snake story. One time I needed to go pre fishin for a tourney and at the time I worked night shift so I pulled the boat to work with me and worked all night left that morning for the lake. I fished for several hours until I was so tired I could not go no more so I knew the drive back home would be hard to stay awake so I decided to take a nap befofe I came back home.I was way up a creek so I just pulled my boat up on the bank laid on the front deck and well...about 1 hour latter when a sound woke me I raise up to look and it was a huge black snake rustling in the leaves about 3 feet away from the boat. It did not take long for me to wake up then in fact I was wide awake the whole trip back home. I know a black snake is harmless but I hope I never sleep with one again LOL.

R19