Yep, fouzman you would be correct on that one! I will never forget as a young child, i was in the boat with my Great Uncle Clarence (a sears 14 ft flat bottom with a 25hp tiller motor)...we were crappy fishing in this creek, he was scuttling the boat around a huge nest of yellow jackets in a willow tree on one side of the bank...as we were intently watching that yellow jacket nest and staying on the other other side of the bank...all of a sudden there was the dangest racket in the boat! As I turned around, I saw Uncle Clarence with the long paddle trying to keep two mocassicans at bay, in the middle part of the boat with one hand while reaching in his tackle box for his snake pistol with the other! After he managed to dispatch both snakes, he reached back in his tackle box and pulled out his 1/2 pint..."to take the EDGE off his nerves"...those guys on the bank were sure worked up about it too! Telling us how they saw them drop right off the willow limbs and right into the boat! Took a bit of doing, but he finally coaxed me off the top of that motor! Of course, as always, I had to promise not to tell Aunt Esther, or she would never let me go fishing again...I did tell her that story though, many years later while visiting her grave site.

Almost stepped on 2 moccasins and a copperhead in the past week walking to on the trails to my crappie hole. I now walk with my head down watching every step lol

Isn't the man/snake story a fable about a turtle and snake, or was it a frog and snake, or maybe frog and scorpion?

It's in my "nature" to ask.

...Good stuff!