[Red Badger]

I went fishing this morning, but after a short time I ran out of worms. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a cottonmouth with a frog in his mouth. "Frogs are good bass bait" I thought to myself.

Knowing the snake couldn't bite me with the frog in his mouth, I grabbed him right behind the head, took the frog, and put it in my bait bucket.

Just then, I realized I had a problem, how was I going to release the snake without getting bit? So, I grabbed my bottle of Jack Daniels and poured a little whiskey in its mouth. The snake's eyes rolled back and he went limp. I released him into the lake without incident and carried on fishing using the frog. A little later, I felt a nudge at my foot. There was that same snake with two more frogs in his mouth.

Life is good Wishing you Blue Skies and Tight Lines

[Psalm 73]

True story!

[silent majority rising]

Funny!

[silent majority rising]

Funny!

[SakoL61R]

Haha!
One of my snake encounters....
Gatun Lake, Panama fishing for peacock bass with two Army buddies, 1990’s.
Just about too drunk to fish and a large fer-de-lance slithers over the transom of our john boat.
Killed it with the emergency oar after several minutes of expletives and hilarity.
We still laugh about it.

[Rebelbase]

Somewhere on a NC fishing website is a photo of rattler in the surf on the NC coast.

[Romans Nine]

Thanks for the morning laugh!

[Flick Lives]

The snakes are mostly peaceful.

[Joe 6-pack]

Bass Pro fisherman Bill Dance has some great blooper reels from his show. A number of them involve unexpected encounters with snakes.

[bert]

My dad was fishing with his two brothers in law.

He was in the middle of the boat and a BIL was in the bow and the stern.

A rattlesnake swam up, approaching the boat. Having a presence of mind, my dad grabbed a paddle and in a sweeping blow. struck the rattlesnake with a ferocious blow with the paddle edge.

On raising the paddle for a second blow, the snake slid down the paddle and into the boat. My uncle in the front somehow fell into the water. My uncle in the stern calmly grabbed the pistol and began shooting holes in the bottom of the boat.

I have heard that tale seemingly thousands of times at family gatherings. I don’t know what happened to the rattlesnake

[zeestephen]

Summer lake water in Wyoming is always cool to chilly.

My first instinct - hard to believe that reptiles can survive for more than a few minutes without going into hypothermia.

I checked Google for average rattlesnake body temp...

Ideal comfort - 86-89 F.

Average temp in the wild - 70-74 F.

And, no, I do not know how you take the body temp of a wild rattlesnake!

[Savage Beast]

If you kill a rattlesnake, will the eco-nutcases have you thrown in jail and fined?

[Dust in the Wind]

I'd never thought about them swimming before I saw one crossing a creek near where I live. Grew up miles from any water bodies but plenty of snakes.

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.

[Midwesterner53]

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.

[circlecity]

One place I like those 410 shotgun shell pistols (like the Governor) is in a boat. They are great snake guns.

[NetAddicted]

Is this a true story?

[1Old Pro]

half the people responding to the post were shocked that rattlesnakes would swim across the lake

There's a protected nest in the Adirondacks. The rattlers swim across Lake George and are often found on the Islands.

[Night Hides Not]

Were Liz Cheney and Kinzinger swimming, too?

[M Kehoe]

Okay...

I have had many encounters with snakes. Big ones, small ones, venomous and non venomous. In the toilet and bath tub to car and shed, the poison ropes are everywhere...

So, I’m ten years old and fishing with my buddy in a john boat on lake Okeechobee. About thirty minutes later we spot something swimming towards us.

I look at Donnie, my fishing friend, and say, damn that looks like a cottonmouth.

Damn snake tried to get into the boat. Thank the Lord we had paddles. Sumbitch was determined to get into the boat.

Gave me a new respect for the outdoors.

5.56mm