Fishing Alone, With Snakes

[crowebeetle]

Here is a list of some of the recorded deaths due to snake bites. Most are rattlesnakes and 4 deaths by copperheads are listed in the 2010s.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_f ... attlesnake.

[Doug K]

South Africa like Australia is just full of dozens of kinds of venomous snakes, walk loudly and carry a big stick..
Nearly stepped on a puff-adder once while carp fishing, he struck but bounced off the wellington boots I was wearing..
The Cape trout streams had cobras, more than once had them swim past under our rod tips..
A friend's daughter was taking a shower at the game farm, found there was a spitting cobra already in residence in the nice cool shower stall.. daughter ended up dropping from the first-story window ledge. Luckily being a strong soccer player, she just rolled and bounced up..

Here in the US, I really appreciate the rattlers, and their polite advance warnings..
canoe trip on the Missouri, looked for a lunch spot and heard that odd buzz like a box of matches rattling.. he was coiled and head about a foot up, just waiting for me to make a move. I thought they would back down but this one was not going anywhere.. we found another spot.
Backpack trip with my son age 5, narrow railroad grade with cliff one side and 30ft drop to stream on other, rattler under a bush warning us and about 3ft wide trail. Son still refers to that as 'the time Dad tried to throw me off the cliff' as I kept myself between him and the snake, using his backpack as a sort of carry handle. We made it past the snake, about a mile down the trail son starts imitating rattlesnake noises behind me..
Pheasant hunting, dog leaps a couple feet into the air and comes down curious, as the rattler coils and readies himself. Called the dog off and used the shotgun.. usually I'd let them alone but there was going to be a youth hunt in this area the next weekend, thought it might be better not to have big rattlers around for that.

There's a grass or garter snake in my wife's vegetable garden. First encounter there was a lot of screaming but by now they are used to each other..

There's a great little trout stream in N Co, infested with buzzworms. The hoppers here make a buzz as they fly that sounds a bit like a rattle. My friend was in there once, great fishing, but he kept hearing hoppers and not seeing them. On his way out he realized it wasn't hopper season. Never been back..

[PT48]

Doug, did you ever come across a Black Mamba whilst in Africa?

[headwaters]

Yeah, 6t, thanks. I've had what-I-consider more than my fair share of close calls with copperheads too, and -- in my experience -- they're more aggressive than rattlesnakes. One of my close-call stories about a copperhead is one where -- again late in the day -- I stepped over a a log across a trail near a stream when, as I straddled the log, I suddenly woke up to the fact that there was a copperhead lying along the log, right next to me at crotch level. I panicked, somehow leaped or levitated in one direction, while the copperhead, which luckily was stretched out facing away from my crotch, went incredibly fast along the log in the other direction and into his burrow in the uprooted rootball of the fallen log. I still can't bring myself to comfortably fish that stretch of the river. So, as I said, I always carry a wading staff!

[teter]

Agree that cottonmouths are scarier than rattlers -- you can see and sometimes hear the rattlers. I have encountered rattlers and made a wide berth around them (though a friend of mine almost stepped on one the other day). I have only seen one verified moccasin, and I hadn't yet stepped into the water, but -- "Lonesome Dove."

[Diamond Dan]

Here’s an entertaining fish/snake story from yesterday’s Montana Standard. https://mtstandard.com/news/local/the-f ... user-share

[magpie]

It's a little known fact that close encounters with snakes enables humans to levitate and defy the pull of gravity.

[Sandan]

I think it was Richard Pryor who said, "snakes make you hurt yourself"

[Doug K]

Doug, did you ever come across a Black Mamba whilst in Africa?

luckily no.. don't ever want to either.

my brother-in-law was visiting the ruins of Zimbabwe, there's a narrow little rock-walled passage up to the main ruins. They were walking up when a black mamba decided to come up too.. everyone leapt onto the walls but the snake followed.. looked around then vanished into the rocks which was a relief to all parties.

[headwaters]

It's a little known fact that close encounters with snakes enables humans to levitate and defy the pull of gravity.

Exactly!

[PT48]

Yes teter, poor Sean, his death is terrible. The Black Mamba of course sprang to international fame in Kill Bill Two when Bill's brother, Bud, bit the dust in dramatic circumstances.

[snorider]

For those of you who missed the MT standard article above it is a classic! Thanks Dan. The story really has it all, fly fishing, snakes, kidnapping and car theft. You cant make that stuff up.

[headwaters]

And, a happy ending!

[billems]

Ah, Texas! Lived there as a boy. Biggest fear was to encounter a nest of water moccasins while swimming. The ground snake most common in North Texas was the copperhead.

[Dwight]

My wife and I arrived at a remote spot on the Salmon River in Idaho one September and, as we were admiring our spot, a man and two women came along on horseback and we were chatting. Soon the man said 'Whoa" pointing to a large rattlesnake winding toward us. We grabbed our dogs as he dismounted, unsheathed his rifle and fired several shots ultimately blowing the snake's head off. We looked for the head and, after a while, finally found it and buried it under a pile of rocks so our dogs couldn't get to it. We talked more to the folks on horseback and after they left I walked over to pick up the snake and throw it in the river. This was 10 minutes after its head came off. When I picked it up by its tail, it coiled in the air and 'hit' me with its bloody stump in my forearm. I quickly walked down to the river and launched it. I last spotted it swimming upstream along a large back-eddy seam. I don't think there's any reasoning with those creatures, lol. Every time I hear that buzz, I get a huge shot of adrenaline.

Dwight

[Flykuni3]

Oh my god. It went looking for the headless chicken.

[PT48]

Great story Dwight, there have been similar accounts in Australia. Apparently snakes can still envenomate when dead (they need a head to achieve it though).

[Gnome]

Oh my god. It went looking for the headless chicken.

That would be "Mike" and he lived in Fruita before his passing. sorry for the sidetrack

[wineslob]

Probably 30 years ago I was fishing with a buddy of mine in one of the Forks of the American River near the Beacroft Cabin. The section we were fishing was a box canyon with access along the top. As I was making my way up stream I was just putting my foot down when the "noise you don't want to hear" sounded. I literally looked down and jumped straight up as I had nearly stepped on a 4 foot long Rattlesnake. My buddy who was below me in the small canyon saw me shoot up and says, "rattler huh?" Me: "no s*it Sherlock".

[JohnMD1022]

I'm certainly no expert, but the research I did a few years ago after I had encounters with a number of them, led me to conclude that copperhead bites are not innocuous. While there may not have been many if any any fatalities from them to my knowledge, my understanding including from those I know who were bitten (or had members of their families who were bitten) by them have been hospitalized and suffered from long-lasting to perhaps permanent nerve damage in the affected extremities (hands, arms, or legs) where they were bitten. And, unfortunately, they frequent wood piles, rock piles and stone walls, damp areas like the root systems of stream-side trees, and stone or cribwork foundations of bridges over streams, all of which I find myself around a lot. So, if anyone has more recent research, or who otherwise has more knowledge about or experience with copperhead bites knows differently, I'd like to hear it. Thanks!

There was a snake bite article on Outdoor Life in about 1968. There were photos of copperhead damage to a man’s arm.

They also mentioned a large rattlesnake nest in Salt Lake City with a winter population of over 1000, as I recall.

We hiked across that field regularly, but ever saw a snake.