[cva66snipe]

I showed the picture at the top to my wife. She's seen her share of Cottonmouths as a kid. She said looks like one to her. But the black was throwing her off too. She said that sometimes right after they came out of the water they would look like they were black but were grey or brown. Too many things throw me off like the lack of a skin pattern and the tail sections too sharp & long but not blunt. I sure wouldn't have asked it LOL.

Reminds me of a guy named Wendy Bagwell. He was a Gospel Singer and Comedian. If you ever get a chance listen to a track he did called "Here comes the Rattlesnakes" then do so. It's one of the funniest stories I've ever heard told in my life. It's about a church he was talked into going to sing at up in Kentucky and unknown to him they were also snake handlers. In these neck of the woods theres still some of them around too.

You're right about snake bites. Most of what killed people before was doing the wrong thing once bitten. Like you say too they can get people out of about any area now flown to a hospital with anti-venom weather permitting within an hour or less.

[American72]

One easy way of telling a cottonmouth from a nonvenomous water snake: look at the jawline. Cottonmouths have a ‘racoon’ pattern on their jawline - thick horizontal stripes. Water snakes have a yellowish jawline with vertical stripes. You can clearly see the vertical stripes on the picture humblegunner posted. Also, the cottonmouth does not have a solid yellow belly. The cottonmouth has a mottled/checkered belly. People can say what they want; I just believe in leaving them alone. Get a water hose and squirt at them and they’ll go away.