I foul hooked a water snake

C

Canoetripper

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Not a very big one, maybe 14", but a very pissed offed one. Hooked around the tail end. It tried its best to bite me while I was trying to unhook it but $h!t on my fingers instead.
 
I use barbless hooks, but I don't think that the snake appreciated it very much.
 
We did not foul hook one, but I was out today on a lake with my daughter. The northern water snakes were very active. We had several swimming right around us as we were wading. She handled it like a champ, but it definitely put a preoccupation on her attention as they would bask on the rocks behind us. They did not seem aggressive at all, but we did not have one tail hooked either. They certainly were not bothered by our presence either.
 
One evening my wife and I were fishing a hole as two young men fished towards us on the opposite bank. About 50 yards out they started fussing and carrying on about a snake. Their acting was maybe adequate for the high school play. Clearly, they were trying to make my wife uncomfortable so we would leave.

My wife's older brother kept pet snakes in the house and so she's quite comfortable with them. We just giggled to ourselves and kept on fishing, probably longer than we should have. To their credit they skipped around us. I often wished I'd just invited them to show us how to catch some fish in this pool, but alas, I'm not always as good a person as my dog thinks I am.
 
Or you could end up like this.
P5240266 3

and then have the whole family show up.
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Back story. One of the guys I fish with had just taken up fishing just before this happen and was in the worm and bobber stage. When he hooked a fish he would very slowly reel it in. The snake was faster.
 
Many years ago, a friend of mine hooked a water snake in a similar fashion. When he brought it out the stream, the first thing I picked up on was how badly it stunk. It smelled horrible! lol
 
Been there done that on more than one occasion. Always managed to "manually " release the critters!
 
They're very defensive, I don't mess with them:
 
If you get bitten by one, they have an anticoagulant in their saliva. Don't be freaked out when they bite you and you just keep bleeding. It'll stop shortly and their teeth aren't very big but they are angry little fellas.
 
I've had numerous folks tell me one of two things about a water snake:

1. If it's dark, then it's a water moccasin. No matter that there are none in PA.
2. If it's freshly shed, it's a copperhead.

In neither case is it possible to reason with them.
 
Water snakes have no sense of humor.
 
When I was younger we used to take a cloth bag and a pair of ski gloves to walk along the creek running through the golf course in town. Some of the water snakes we caught were almost as round as your wrist and over 40 inches long. Those ones were scary to pick up since they were so aggressive. I think one day that we caught over 40 snakes.

I'm not afraid of snakes just respectful. I've bare handed a few black snakes that were as long as I am tall and wouldn't rule out a rattlesnake capture if I had room to move around.
 
Black rat snakes are docile. This handsome five-foot guy was warming itself in the middle of a path on a chilly morning. As I was taking photos, it slowly raised and bumped my camera:





It's almost as if it was curious. Wish I would've switched to macro for the final two shots...
 
Yeah, black snakes will flee if they feel threatened...but...if they feel cornered, different story. Very fast moving, quick strikes and no hesitation to square up with the opponent
 
krayfish2 said:
When I was younger we used to take a cloth bag and a pair of ski gloves to walk along the creek running through the golf course in town. Some of the water snakes we caught were almost as round as your wrist and over 40 inches long. Those ones were scary to pick up since they were so aggressive. I think one day that we caught over 40 snakes.

I'm not afraid of snakes just respectful. I've bare handed a few black snakes that were as long as I am tall and wouldn't rule out a rattlesnake capture if I had room to move around.
Click to expand...
Yep catching snake hunting was something me and my friends did almost on a daily basis in the summertime. Days We’re long back before cell phones, year round sports and parents Structuring every minute of every day. We didn’t wear gloves though and didn’t worry much about getting bit until after we were bit. some of my funniest Memories are of friends getting bit by snakes. Nowadays, I have no desire to even touch a snake and would just cut my leader. I‘m more afraid of getting some flesh eating snake bacteria then simply a few bleeding teethmarks.
 
A long time ago I ran over a black rat snake on a camp driveway. It was more like a path through some hay fields. I didn't mean to. In fact, I didn't even see it until the return trip. It was huge, but I didn't actually measure it. I draped it over the side mirror on that 3/4 ton truck, and it almost touched the ground on both ends. I guessed it was close about 7 foot. Definitely over 6.
 
I found this snake dead near the road and not too far from a stream. It didn't appear to be run over though. Is this a water snake?
 

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