Water moccasins while wading?

[Chuck Gibson]

I started jigging for crappie this last spring wearing a pair of waders with a great deal of luck. One of the last times I was fishing just minutes after stepping up on the bank in a small cove, a very large water moccasin came swimming right where I was standing. This cove is very stumpy and you can't just rush through it. Will snakes mess with you out in the water like that?

 

[thefairlaneman]

Re: Water moccasins while wading?

Oh yes . Where they are when they decide to bite you makes no difference to them. Just dont do anything to make them want to bite you.

 

[RicMic]

Re: Water moccasins while wading?

They have no interest in biting you, they can't swallow you, so they just want to be left alone. I've stepped right next to a lot of cottonmouths and they just tried to look like a stick. Remember not every snake you see in the water is a moccasin, there are lots of water snakes and they look very similar, but except for the cottonmouth,none of them are venomous. They do have VERY poor eyesight and if they are getting close to shedding their skin, they are just about blind, so they often don't know what or where you are.

 

[JB]

Re: Water moccasins while wading?

Do not confuse harmless water moccasins with venemous cottonmouth moccasins.

I have had contact with a few cottonmouths and the only one that bit me did so because I stepped on it.

No snake goes out into the water looking for someone to bite. They would much rather avoid contact with humans. . .the most deadly organism on the planet. . .and are just looking for a meal.

 

[waterinthefuel]

Re: Water moccasins while wading?

Yea, JB, we all know you defend snakes. That's fine. WTF is a "harmless water moccasin?" We only have one species of moccasin in LA and it's quite harmful. We have water SNAKES, but not water moccasins that are harmless.

I'm actually here to back you up and add something. True water moccasins sit very high out of the water. They're very buoyant. If all you see is the head when he's swimming, I don't care how big he is, he ain't a moccasin. And since all snakes can swim, him being in the water doesn't even begin to hint that he is a true moccasin.

 

[JB]

Re: Water moccasins while wading?

Several species of harmless snakes that hang around and in water are called moccasins and often confused with the cottonmouth, which may occur any where in, or out of, the water.

I don't see myself as "defending" snakes any more than I "defend" other natural wonders.

 

[dooma_Flatchy]

Re: Water moccasins while wading?

Yeah, Ummm, I don't like em. they give me the willys,shakes,ooooooo's and makes me say poo poo words....

 

[jtexas]

Re: Water moccasins while wading?

I dunno, back in the day fishing the natural lakes of northern Louisiana in 14' jonboats, I learned that those cottonmouths will come toward the boat, and will get close enough to whack 'em with a short-handled paddle.

And they will drop in on ya out of tree branches. Ok that never actually happened to me per se, but it happened to lots of people I knew. Ok maybe not people I knew personally, but people I knew who knew of it happening......oh never mind......