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
He died, from laughter.
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.