It look like a Copperhead to me. Bang! Bang! Bang!

barndoor

Oh my goodness... So many false identifications.

These guys are completely correct in their identification as a NON-VENOMOUS WATERSNAKE. That would mean no venom, and no harm done to anyone but Mister frog there! There is absolutely no reason to even waste a cartridge on this snake, and I applaud those of you that can actually realize that.

I would hazard a guess to say it is a Nerodia fasciata confluens, or southern watersnake. They are somewhat rarer in Texas than the other species of watersnake like the diamondback and plainbelly watersnakes. It could also be an intergrade (hybrid) with a broadbanded watersnake. Thanks to that really close first picture I can get a scale count estimate at approximately 26 scale rows at mid-body which is precisely the same as Neorodia fasciata confluens.

All of this is coming from seven years of SCIENTIFIC learning as well as field experience. Not seven years of wandering around fishing and shooting at "poisonous" snakes, but research, and I would bet my savings and my hand on this identification. If I didn't know how to instantly know if a snake is venomous, I wouldn't have hands right now. I hope this can be a final word and an end to the persistant snake-silliness that pervades this forum whenever a photo is posted...

Dang! Well, I WAS on my third Tanqueray Ten Martini and I didn't have my 'puter glasses on. You're absolutely correct.
Having had a couple of unnerving encounters with cottonmouths, including twice while bellyboating and once when one fell into the boat during a duck hunt, maybe I was having a flashback.
The duck/'mouth incident occurred many moons ago when I was 14. I was huntin' dem dux at Black Lake, near Nachitoches LA, and was in a 14' wooden flatbottom. A young local lad, about 17, was acting as my guide.
When we poled into a stand of cypress to retrieve a duck I had downed, the snake fell out of a small cypress and landed between us. My new friend yelled "Do sumpin''bout dat snake!" Well, I did, sending the critter to Snake Valhalla with three rounds of Express 12 gauge.
Luckily the water, though somewhat cold, was only 3' feet deep, 'cause we sat in it for about 20 minutes, still in the boat, with bits of snake bobbing about us, until our host and my dad came cruising by and spotted us.
After they finished laughing their a55es off they rescued us and towed the wreckage back to camp. By afternoon the bottom of the boat was replanked and she was combat-ready once more.
Well, he DID tell me to something "'bout dat snake!"
I'm the only one still living from that bit of history, sad to say, but the memories are still vivid and sweet.
Never did a duck dinner taste so good as the one served at camp that night.

Lancer6

Mason -- is your last name Miller?

No sir.

Look like a Cobra to me. Shoot it!!

barndoor

Cobras aren't native anywhere on this entire continent. Elapids, yes, cobras, no.

I'm hoping you're being ironic...lol

Glad to hear you can look in the eye and tell if they are venomous or not. personally I will just get as far away from the snake as possible and leave it be. I would not kill the snake just because of being scared of it. I might even accidentally kill myself trying to get away from it. You know run head first into a tree, fall into water and drown while being unconscious in the drink. Thats just me though.

Actually, the eye thing only works with the pit vipers here in the US. The Elapids (cobra's mambas and our coral snake)have round pupils. The coral saneks are so small however, it's hard to get a good look at their pupil without getting dangerously close:

There are also some non-venomous snakes here in Texas that have the verticle pupils, like the night snake and lyre snake. While both have a MILDLY toxic saliva, they're harmless to humans. I handle them all the time. Here's a night snake. You can see the verticle pupil pretty well:

Gets a little confusing no? Good rule of thumb, "If you don't know what they are, leave'em be"
JP

JP says "If you don't know what they are, leave'em be"

Ben says: or use a telephoto lens

Jason, great shot of a coral snake. Remember:

Red on black, friend of Jack.
Red on yellow, kill a fellow.

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM SNAKE TACO'S !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :):):)

On my little slice of heaven - the lady of the house says "shoot first - identify remains later!"

Anaconda?

Looks like it needs to die.