Snake identification

[MetalFish513]

I was out fishing at the creek the other day (banklick creek in northern ky) and I had a curious little snake follow me around for a while. It wasn't big... Maybe 2 ft long at the most but everytime I would switch spots here it would come and stick it's little head out of the water and just watch me. Kind of odd. The water clarity wasn't the greatest but it looked like it was a solid orange or light brown color with no visible pattern on it's back. Does anyone know what kind of snake this could have been? I tried to take a picture of it but with the camera on my phone the head just looks like a little dot in the water and you can't even see the body at all.

[FlyLie]

Check out the following pdf and see if it helps. http://fw.ky.gov/pdf/kysnakebook.pdf

[Carter1]

Sounds like one of the many water snakes we have around here.

[stratosjoe]

my favorite snake is the roadsnake the kind thats been ran over abot 27 times!

[Carter1]

I sometimes keep a machete in my boat for the ones that feel they just have to slither aboard.

[MetalFish513]

I sometimes keep a machete in my boat for the ones that feel they just have to slither aboard.

I've thought about doing the same

[sweetwater]

Most likely a watersnake. They're harmless but they will bite you if you try to catch one.

[olgreenboat]

The way to tell Poisonous Snakes from none poisonous in the water is the poisonous ones bodies will float on top of the water and the none will swim under only sticking there head out. Poisonous snakes heads are all ways a lot wider then there neck. Had a dam timber rattler swim by me last year at rough river , I was in my boat but it was 3 feet from the side I figure I would leave well enough alone he didn't want me and i was happy to see him swim on by but it was a little un nerving.

[kydonky]

The way to tell Poisonous Snakes from none poisonous in the water is the poisonous ones bodies will float on top of the water and the none will swim under only sticking there head out. Poisonous snakes heads are all ways a lot wider then there neck. Had a dam timber rattler swim by me last year at rough river , I was in my boat but it was 3 feet from the side I figure I would leave well enough alone he didn't want me and i was happy to see him swim on by but it was a little un nerving.

I have seen many coperheads dive under the water when you get close to them. So not so sure about the old float/sink test. In any case I pretty much just leave snakes alone. Even wading chest deep in Elkhorn creek you will have a water snake swim under your nose. Best thing to do is just let him swim by, you do your business and let him do his.

When I lived in southern MO. we had to always watchout for cottonmouths. I guess some of you in western KY. may have these to. I did carry a 22 loaded with bird shot in every other round, around the ponds and lakes. Those cottonmouths are the most agressive snakes I have every ran accross. You could be 40 feet from them and they would come right after you.

[kyfanatic]

No reason to kill harmless snakes and no reason to kill any snake unless it presents some type of danger.I'll never understand people who kill every snake they see out of their own feminist fear.
The little snake you saw sounds like a kirklands watersnake to me.

http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/4279/barnpets.jpg

I have two of these little fellers in my barn,they catch mice and don't hurt a thing,my hunting buddy likes to play with them.

[RoadToad]

I hate it when people kill snakes for no reason. I've seen a bunch of snakes around my neighborhood that people killed, and swore up and down they were copperheads, but none of them really were.

[MetalFish513]

I'm not about killing anything unless I plan on eating it and fortunately for the snakes they're not on the menu (although I've heard it's not bad). I'll leave any snake I see alone as long as it does the same for me. Honestly i enjoy seeing them most of the time. Just another amazing piece of nature. But if I'm face to face with an aggressive one and don't have a quick way out it's either me... or the snake...