You think that snake looks skinny? 100% Cottonmouth

Cottonmouth

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The bars on the underside of the jaw are a giveaway. It's a watersnake. Cotton mouths don't have the black bars on the lower jaw, and they have a dark patch running on the side of their heads through the eyes

Watersnake .... tail is way too long for a stumptail moccasin.

In relation to it's girth,yes.

That's a water snake, but I'll say that's about as close to a cottonmouth that a watersnake can look.

Well, this is a bad pic of the snakes head...BUT it is evident the head is diamond shaped (pit viper) and not round, Plus, the body is fat, thick, and short relative to most water snakes...I don�t care about the head markings, Even if you could see them from the pics supplied...this snake has too many features of a cottonmouth...as such this snake is dead, if I see him.

A good head shot is exactly what this snake needs Bonz...from my .22 mag!

Cottonmouth........

Poor little water snake, he didn't do anything

Cotton mouth.

*******Expert here. This is literally what I studied in college. Caught my fair share of snakes by hand. Correct in that it is hard to tell by the picture so not saying this with 100% certainty but about 95%, but it's a water snake...not venomous. Water snakes have an almost identical anatomy to the moccasin, EVEN THE TRIANGLE HEAD!!!!!! You have to look for tiny distinguishing features like the bars and coloring on the jaw, the shape of the retina, and if you have experience the lumpiness of the head where the venom glands change the shape eeeever so slightly.

Water moccasins got their name "cottonmouth" because when they feel threatened they ball up and open their mouth wide so you can see the white inside, looks like a cotton swab. If the snake is threatened and they do this 1) the behavior alone tells you it's a moccasin not a water snake 2) you can see the fangs.....

99% of the snakes we all see around the water that we think are venomous are actually just water snakes. I've seen less than a dozen moccasins my whole life. Totally would wrangle that there snake!

Eric

You must be either real young, or don't get out much .... I have seen a dozen REAL (and I know the difference) moccasins in one mud hole feeding on minnows small fish in the Trinity River bottom!
I killed 50 or so on an island we were camping on one time!
We built a fire to cook hotdogs and 8 copperheads and 3 water moccasins came up to the fire .... YES, the tent zipper was wired shut with a fish hook after that!