Snakes on a Bank!

Get these @#!@## snakes off my @!#%%$# bank!

Be careful out there, been seeing way more copperheads than normal this year. Have killed a couple right on common use paths.

Got a .22 mag six shooter with some rat shot? They are very effective against those bank vipers...around DFW, I concern myself more with the bank snakes than the water snakes...well, except when I get to cottonmouth country to the east...then I kinda look like this walking to my favorite bank fishing spot...

I saw 2 at Breckenridge/Richardson the other day within 20 minutes of each other. They didn't bother me.

I know it's their home...

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Good for you...say, if you happen to collect snakes, i got a big one that has bitten three of my cattle (one died), I will be happy to point you in the right direction...If you or a friend would like to relocate it, before I find it...It is a western diamondback and judging by the part I have seen (unfortunately had no weapon handy) is well into the 5 foot category and big around as your fist, about 18 inches from its tail...you might want to wade in with chaps on, should you decide to come catch it. Send me a PM and I will set up a time and place to meet...I would like anyone to give it a new home, before I send it to snake heaven...

No thanks, Grandview is a bit far for me to go make purposeful friends and to set up "relocation" duties for me. Besides, I'm not buddies with snakes. I just don't get bothered by them, at least I haven't had an incident that made me get bothered, yet.

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Great post. It's that time of year. Stay safe out there!

Another suggestion. If your bank fishing in an area that looks sketchy (Snake Infested) DONT wear headphones and listen to music.

Snakes are tricky little creatures and sometimes you can hear them way before you see them.

Have not seen my first snake yet this year but it is just a matter of time! Watch where you step and place your hands. Be careful out there and enjoy the GREAT outdoors.

I get it, no problem...most folks dont have to live with them 7/24 the way some of us do...hey at least I tried...I dont really like wading into waist high grass after a known cattle killer, weapon or not, especially when you are not positive of the exact den location...even my snake rangler buddy declined to go in after it.

I do understand your viewpoint. Probably you, like most people dont have to look for snakes before stepping out the door of their house, but if you did, it is really easy to have a different view of the vipers than the "just leave them alone, they are in their natural environment" view that I hear from time to time. FYI, non-poisionous snakes usually get a pass from me, if they are not found in my house or boat or auto or tractor or hen house, or striking at me...indeed, a fellow bank fishing around me thought I was crazy for fishing directly beneath a 4 ft banded water snake on a limb 2 foot above my head (I was bent down fishing a brush top) He was totally blown away that I knew the snake was there and cautioned him not to make the snake move as I didn't want the snake to scare the fish away by slipping in the water....

There used to be a family children's story about a guy that rescued a freezing deadly snake, warmed him, fed hm, nursed him back to health...after a while the fully recovered snake bit the man, and as the man lay dying far from help, he asked the snake why would you bite me, after all he had done for the snake, he saved him, fed him, and nursed him back to health...and the snake replied "you knew I was a deadly snake and would/could kill before you saved me, so dont blame me for biting you, blame yourself for saving me"

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!

I dont know about the other fables...that story was first told to me as a child when I was sitting beside a campfire (over 50 years ago) on the bank of the lake, by my great uncle Clarence...within 5 minutes of being told that story a cottonmouth came to investigate the fire and was duly dispatched with a shovel we used to tend the fire. I didn't sleep that night or ever forget the moral of the story.

Parable/fable ir-regardless, seems to have got the point of intent across.
I have also heard some similar like a monkey on the back of a lion, a man on the back of a bear.
"beware of risks" is the theme I believe that is being expressed.
Just a thought might also be; consider snakes bearing apples as gifts.

+1

Yup, the moral of the story, this bank fishing topic, "Watch out for snakes. They can bite!"

You can "bank" on it!

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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

Those moccasins probably fell out of an overhanging branch onto that trail.

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.

Wow, I guess I've been very fortunate. In My 20+ years of fishing I've must have seen hundreds of snakes. Out of all those snakes only 3 have been venomous. 2 copperhead, 1 cottonmouth.

Yep the old story is about a scorpion and a frog.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Scorpion_and_the_Frog

Reminds me of the time I got bit by a rattlesnake one day when I was out fishing the banks of Lake El Butto. After several days of agonizing pain, the snake died.