When a rattlesnake glided across the lake Sunday to visit a Wyoming fisherman, the fisherman wasn’t flattered. Posted on 07/25/2022 5:08:24 AM PDT by Red Badger
When a rattlesnake glided across the lake Sunday to visit a Wyoming fisherman, the fisherman wasn’t flattered.
Patrick Edwards, avid fisherman and voice of Radcast Outdoors, recorded a video Sunday evening of a rattlesnake slithering toward him across the surface of Boysen Reservoir. He’d been fishing for Walleye with two of his four children – an 8-year-old and 12-year-old – and with his father and his wife’s grandfather.
“This is not what you want to see when you go fishing,” said Edwards in the video. “That is a big’n… and he’s wanting to come hang out while I am fishing. Not very cool.”
Edwards posted the video to one of his Facebook pages and was surprised when it was linked by photography profile Wyoming Through the Lens – and went viral.
VIDEO AT LINK...............
About half the people responding to the post were shocked that rattlesnakes would swim across the lake, said Edwards. But he’s been seeing it all his life.
“They actually cross Boysen all the time. I’ve seen it probably 20 times at least on Boysen, I’ve seen it on the Seminoe Reservoir down by Sinclair, the Glendo Reservoir… Flaming Gorge,” he said. “They’re not afraid to get in the water.”
About 20 years ago, a rattler tried slithering into the boat while Edwards and his dad fished.
Edwards said the rattlers often will cross the lake when the water is warmest in the early evening, but even then they need a moment to recover their body heat when they hit the bank.
When Edwards’ video reached the sand 10 yards away from him, he thought the snake would relax for a few minutes. But the snake recovered quickly.
“He sat there for a minute and he started to slither toward me,” said Edwards, recounting what happened after he stopped recording. “I thought ‘Oh crap – I don’t want you over here.’”
Edwards threw a few rocks toward the snake and it meandered the other direction.
Second Rattler
But that was only the first rattler of the evening.
The family discovered a second snake by accident while ambling toward their truck in the half-dark of evening, about 9:30.
Edwards came within five feet of the rattlesnake, and it let him know.
“He started rattling really loud.”
The family avoided the snake as they got into their truck and left. That incident concerned Edwards because unlike the earlier snake encounter, it was a complete surprise.
“I’ve always been terrified of snakes, so that was not helpful.”
‘The Ones You Can’t See’
Edwards said his children handled the shock fine, since they’d seen other rattlesnakes on the family farm earlier this year.
“It’s the ones you can’t see that you’ve got to worry about,” he said, adding that many people have approached him since he made the viral post, and have told him they paddleboard and play in the lake water.
Edwards tells those people to pay close attention to what’s in the water, watch for graceful serpentine movement. And paddle away.
“I always worry about people who are waterskiing,” Edwards said. “You can run over a rattlesnake.”
Non-venomous bull snakes and many other breeds also swim in lakes, but the rattlesnake has a flatter, broader head and can be identified by its rattles as well.
If you kill a rattlesnake, will the eco-nutcases have you thrown in jail and fined?
If they can.
Only if you kill the two-legged kind......................
Carried one out of my shop this past Friday. I'd offered it a hot beverage but it was rejected so I dispatched him and went into the house and spent a while cooling down and lowering my heart rate. Not the first of the hated critters in my shop; it's a wonder I get any work done in there.
When I was a kid way back in the 60’s, I was playing ‘Batman’ and under the above-grade house was my ‘Batcave’.
I had been under there for a while, and accidentally kicked an old stovepipe.
It felt oddly heavy since I knew what one was and how much it was supposed to weigh.
I crawled around to look into the end of it and came face to face with a COPPERHEAD!.....................
Fishing in deep south Georgia when I was growing up, we always took a shotgun in the boat with us just for this reason. We mainly saw copperheads, never a rattler.
One place I like those 410 shotgun shell pistols (like the Governor) is in a boat. They are great snake guns.
Is this a true story?
Which one?...........🤣😂😉..........................
There's a protected nest in the Adirondacks. The rattlers swim across Lake George and are often found on the Islands.
He died, from laughter.
Were Liz Cheney and Kinzinger swimming, too?
Yes, most snakes can swim. Scary to watch Cobras do it.
LOL
Myself and another person were going fishing in my 17-foot canoe once, and we picked up the vessel and carried it over our heads. We strapped it on top of the car and drove to the lake, and when we took it off the car and turned it over there was a snake in it. Fortunately it wan’t poisonous. I had a friend in Louisiana who lifted his stringer of fish into his boat and there was a cottonmouth hanging onto a fish. It bit him. I’m not sure how he got it out of the boat.
Grew up down south - nothing ruins a hazy, hot, humid day at the swimmin' hole than the sight of a few snakes in the water.
Shotgun will sink a boat real quick.😁
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