warning to all fishing floyds fork

[bplgocards]

well i have seen many copperheads on the farms were i grew up in maryland and i have killed 2 rattlesnakes in eastern ky while squirell hunting and these were to dark to be copperheads but they had the pit vper heads im gonna go back out there this week and try to get some pics to post to see what ayll think and if duyane saw a nest is it possible 2 cottonmouths matted this far north and thats why i saw 3 or is this just impossible and is there any water snakes with the large v shaped heads that ressemble the cottonmouth? most water snakes heads are slender and not deffined i thought?

Nonvenomous snakes can flatten their heads when they feel threatened to appear poisonous to ward off predators.

[Duayne]

I think water snakes can have a larger head. The head is more flat and does not have the pits. It also can narrow more slowly back down to the body, where a pit's head will narrow quickly, but a water snake's head still can be larger. Of course there is the eyes and I was close enough to see these weren't round.

I readily admit I couldn't make a positive id based on the young I saw other than they were pits. The rest is based on habitat, which isn't the best indicator for certain. Knowing they were pits was enough for me, regardless of species. LOL

In doing a little research, copperheads can sometimes be found around water so that is a possibility. In the rocks, makes a little less sense, but what does these days?

[bplgocards]

If anyone wants a definitive answer as to whether the snake was poisonous or not, someone go catch one and look at the bottom on the tail ---- 1 row of scales = venomous, 2 rows of scales = nonvenomous. Who is feeling adventurous? :P

[Duayne]

Well, I haven't been back so that should tell you how adventurous I feel about it. LMAO

[gfpete01]

Like many people who have already replied back to you, I have fished the fork for many years myself and I have only seen two snakes there in my time and neither were cottonmouths... Anyway, on to what I use and where I fish the fork!

If the water is really clear I use a texas rigged Powerbait 7 inch worm in Pumpkin seed and sometimes blue fleck. If the water is a little stained I will throw a Bomber Square A crankbait (Color choice is always Pearl Shad) like this: Bomber Square A 7g - Pearl Shad

In fact a lot of times I will throw that little bomber crankbait the whole day, but again if they aren't touching that, I will go back to the ol' faithful pumpkin seed color berkley powerbait 7" worm! That is a no-shut-out bait in the fork!


Places to fish the fork:

Bardstown Road - You can park at this address: 11301 Bardstown Road, Louisville, KY 40291[FONT=arial, sans-serif][COLOR=#000000]. That address is home to a local business called Thrifty Fabrics & Shepperson Upholstery. The lady who owns the place is perfectly fine with you parking by her business where the guard rail is. She doesn't like people parking in her parking lot though! So don't do that! Once you get down to the water head South (Left)... Do not got North (right), the water gets super shallow and I have walked it about two miles... not worth it. There are some really nice deep pools in the south part of the Fork here... be careful though, as there have been times where I have been above my chest (almost to my neck) in water and I am 6'1"!


Shelbyville Road - There is a pull off just as you drive across the bridge over the Fork that is on your left if you are driving East on Shelbyville Road towards Shelbyville. Once you get down to the water, head North (right), not South (left). South is really shallow and I have never done good there. However to the North, there are again some real deep holes that the small mouth will hold up in and you can tear them up there. I have walked this about a mile and the fishing is good.


Seatonville Road - This is the best part of the Fork in my opinion. Not necessarily because of the fishing but because of how scenic it is! A lot of times I don't start fishing until about a half mile upstream because i just want to enjoy the walk.



Hope this helps everybody! [/COLOR][/FONT][FONT=arial, sans-serif][COLOR=#000000]



Thanks,

Grant[/COLOR][/FONT]

[SLP]

Here is a snake guide put out by the state.

http://fw.ky.gov/pdf/kysnakebook.pdf

[jrrose03]

Here is a snake guide put out by the state.

http://fw.ky.gov/pdf/kysnakebook.pdf

that's a pretty good basic guide to identification, didn't get to read all the way through it but...another quick simple way to determine venomous vs. non-venomous is the pupils...most all of the native venomous species have vertical pupils while most all of the non-venoumous have circular pupils...of course this is not always a 100% sure fire way to make a determination of species as there are such snakes as python's and boa's that also have vertical pupils, but obviously they are not native to kentucky...but again with this...if you're able to make this call and clearly see the pupil's youre probably too close....and oh yea, if youre ever out at the louisville zoo around the herpaquarium and see one of the keepers roaming around, stop them and ask questions...theyre a really good group out there and would be more than willing to answer any questions or concerns..after all, thats what they get paid to do lol

[inrll]

I've heard when snakes swim at the surface a venomous snake will swim with its entire body at the surface and a nonvenomous with its head up and body submerged. I might have that backwards but is there any truth to that?

[jrrose03]

I've heard when snakes swim at the surface a venomous snake will swim with its entire body at the surface and a nonvenomous with its head up and body submerged. I might have that backwards but is there any truth to that?

here's a link to give you a good visual to answer that question...but yes the moccassin will swim with the majority of the body elevated above the water surface and head up...alot of water snakes will swim with more of the body submerged and head more level with the surface of the water....

Cottonmouths and the Harmless look-a-like Snakes

[stupified1975]

Cotton Mouth on the left. Hognose on the right.http://www.cottonmouthsnake.org/wp-c...-2-300x225.jpghttp://www.cottonmouthsnake.org/wp-c...ng-300x225.jpg

[21XRD300]

http://www.ca.uky.edu/agc/pubs/for/for46/f1a.gif

I hope you mis-identified what you saw, becaue if it was a cottonmouth it means it's newly introduced to the area. I have a buddy who has lived for over 40 years on a turnhole bend on Floyds Fork a few miles downstream from US 60, he has seen ever kind of water and black snake on his property but has never seen a cottonmouth. There is lots of stuff on line about the limited area in W-KY where the cottonmouth is seen.

[aceoky]

The biggest copperhead I've ever seen was on Laurel River Lake , really wanted to board our pontoon! (guess smelled the shiners in bucket?????) It actually got into the trolling motor which was running didn't seem to like that too much LOL