just a bunch of water snakes...
mostly diamondback water snakes.. harmless until you pick on up..
nasty little buggers, they bite and musk, and chew... and so on. haha.

just let em be

the shape of the head is a dead give away, a trianglar head is bad, round just a water or bull snake. BTW they all bite and it all hurts.

I came 2 feet from stepping on a copperhead the other day..Not a grapevine but it was on a trail leading to a pond...BE CAREFUL..I nearly shat myself

Never have seen a cotton mouth out at Grapevine. I've seen a sh!t load of watersnakes out there. Not saying there isn't any but I haven't seen any since I've been fishing out there the last 14 years.

Same here. I do an all-nighter session at Grapevine pretty much every weekend and we see tons of snakes, but they've all been of the harmless variety so far, i.e. the diamondback water snakes.

I'm sure most of you know this, but to those that don't:
Look at the eyes

vertical elliptical pupils = poisonous
(coral snake being an exception)


round pupils = non-poisonous


Of course it's danged hard to tell the difference in the dark.
Even harder for those who are running away screaming like a little girl with your skirt pulled up over your eyes!

The triangular head thing won't work-harmless water snakes will flatten their heads into a very distinct triangle if disturbed-part of their defensive mode. Best idea is to just leave them alone-even venomous snakes will NOT bite unless provoked in some way. And wear a good pair of heavy boots if you have to do a lot of tromping through bankside cover.

lots of good info here on snakes

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/learning/junior_naturalists/moresnakes.phtml#s4

you might want to think twice before telling people to keep grabbing a snake and throwing them. because there ARE cotton mouths in texas, actually there are a lot of them!

dang them snake pics look creepy..... just looking at them freaks me out

All that to close for comfort snake talk reminds me of a time over thirty years ago.
I was wade fishing just about "crotch deep in the water".
Well the bass really loved plastic worms cranked slow right of the grass and I was having a lot of fun with the 2-3 lb participants. I looked down and right there about a inch under the water and nearly right under me, was the head of a moccasin. He had angled up and was looking at me sort of curiously.
I had .22 caliber Benjamin Pellet Pistol, a well built powerful air gun that cost $50 back in the late 70s. I eased one hand of rod and slid the pistol out of the holster just clearing the barrel and sights,craned my neck slowly looked down the barrel and shot. The pellet went right through his head...and i set the existing back peddle flat footed water walk-hop skip record for east Texas!

Lucky you didn't miss or worse just graze it-I think if i was a cottonmouth, getting wounded by a pellet gun would definitely qualify as "molestation"-thus qualifying you for a free dose of venom!

Seriously, most venomous snake bites occur because the person involved was trying to kill or catch the snake. Unless the snake was in my yard, I'd just walk the other way.

+ 1

Cottonmouth or not...them watersnakes are mean somsabitches and will bite the tar out of you.

Leave em' be! and they'll do the same!

Brad Chambers- Again I was in the water, the pellet smacked a nice hole through his head center punched and he was rolled over dead when the water settled down and I could see him.The whole thing was a shot made with the snake being less than a foot from the muzzle,the water could have messed with the projectile but it did not in that circumstance.I didn't spook until I shot.I was 15 years old then and seemed the thing to do.