Went to Brushy Creek Lake yesterday for my first trip ever fishing out of a kayak! The fish were definetly biting and all was going well until about noon... I decided to hang my foot over the side of the boat cause it was pretty hot and the water looked nice. Well I guess my foot looked nice because about 15 minites later a cotton mouth swims across my foot! Took everything I had to remain calm until I got my paddle. Couple wacks later he was on his way and I was on mine, but with my foot in the boat. Lesson learned...

Actually you were just fine. Cottonmouth aggression might be slightly over rated. Holiday Inn...

It gave you a good lesson not to leave your feet in the water.

I have been yaking for a good while now and have been in some snake filled waters. But this year has been the first year I have had a snake try to get into my kayak. Most of the time they swim away or will just sit there if you don't mess with them. I was fishing a river in Arkansas a few weeks ago and a snake pulled itself up onto the nose so I tapped with my paddle and he swam off. Creepy yeah but I don't let it deter me from enjoying the water. If a snake wants to bite ya he will do on or off the kayak.

It's common for snakes to stick their head over the side of your yak and they will climb aboard if you let em.

Any land encounter with a snake is fine by me because I'm comfortable enough around snakes to either kill or or move it away enough to safely escape. I have had a few close encounters with cotton mouths fishing rocky banks before. So I like to stick to the cautious side around snakes.

That guy is a savage!

I have no desire to just let them board my vessel.

I would kill myself just trying to get it away from me, lol. For a cottonmouth, at any rate. Non-poisonous ones don't bother me so much.

I confront any hostile boarding party with a paddle whack

Snakes have venom. You have to ingest poison.

if that happened to me I'm not likely to have a heart attack but I might just poop my pants! My encounters with hostile cottonmouths has shown that they secret a rather nasty odor if they're mad and disturbed. So, if you smell something, it could be either-p-

Good lesson learned! pending an area, snakes are ever present around water, its a given, just treat them with
respect, usually they leave you alone,,,,,,, remember when i was younger folks did alot of camping went Lake Livingston
back in early 70's , 80's and remember one night dad and i running some lines, and snake fell in the boat with us, needless
to say, a paddle was a handy instrument to have that night...... i carried my .22 mag pistol for years in boats, live and learn,
2 swacks and snake was overboard!..... when we got back to camp my uncle asked why didnt we keep the snake for cut bait
later that weekend!....


keep the lines out!....