Before I ask my question, I would like to say hello to everyone, I have been lurking in the shadows for a few months reading the TFF and everone seems to be very helpful.

After 20+ years of chasing the elusive golf swing and our only daughter married w/our 1st grandchild I have put the clubs away and purchased a F/S boat so our future will be filled quality family time. We live in Grapevine and have been trying to learn to fish again, I have decided I really need to take my wife and go with Mr. Skinner to learn how to fish and how to fish Grapevine. My fondest memomries as a kid are the time I went with my dad, brothers and friends to night fish for crappie which leads me to my question.

My wife and I get set up to do a little night fishing and about the time we get settled in a snake will move towards the the boat. Now I don't like snakes but they don't just scare me to death, but the do tend to put little fear into my wife. What snakes should I worry about and can I change light color if that is attracting the raschals. I believe the only ones to worry about are the moccassins which should be the short fat ones.

Any help would be appreciated.

The same things that attract bait minnows to your boat are the same things that attract snakes; light and obstructions for getting on or under. In this case light, and a lot of it, might benefit you with regard to seeing a snake before it's in the boat.

How high are the gunwales of your boat off the water and is it possible for them to board your boat other than using the outboard motor (can they physically come over the gunwales of your boat from the water)?

The vast majority of them are diamondback water snakes and they are harmless (although they will bite you if you try and handle one...not poisonous though). They are curious and looking for dinner.

Bothe them and the moccasins are afraid of humans as a rule and if they know you are in the boat shouldn't try and get in it. The biggest danger is in picking up a stringer or basket or minnow bucket in the dark and slinging it into the boat without checking first.

The main danger being that you will then have to go scrape your britches afterwards after you get over the initial shock.

just slap at them with a boat oar and they'll skeedaddle.

The biggest problem with moccasins is when someone accidentally floats under an overhanging limb in which one is napping....startles him....and the snake falls into the boat. That's when the you know what hits the fan, causing many a grown man to scream like a little girl.

My advice would be to do some good google searches on the snakes of Texas, buy momma a real good flashlight, and spend a little time identifying them as the come up. You will then see that most are harmless. Just respect their space and tell momma to relax. The odds of getting bit by a mocc while fishing are very low, and that's usually something that happens to a bank fisherman walking in the brush who steps on one.

http://www.snakesandfrogs.com/scra/snakes/scsnake.htm

pretty good snake indentification link

Gdad/mom,
The majority of the snakes that I've seen on Grapevine are diamondback watersnakes. They are brownish in color, with a distinct pattern on their backs. The biggest that I've seen this year was about 5 1/2', last weekend. They're harmless, but curious, and have been know to crawl into the splashwell of boats. On the other hand, Grapevine has some very large water moccasins. In fact the second largest I've ever seen was there last year....about 6'. They're dark gray in color and somewhat aggressive, if you're in their territory. Anyway, go to your local hardware store and buy a spray can of the wasp and hornet killer. Get the one that will spray 25-30 feet. A short spray at their head with this stuff will usually get their attention...and keep them at a distance. Of course, I guess if someone sprayed that stuff in my face..........ah, forget it. It probably won't make them that mad

The way to identify them at a quick glance is that the watersnake will swim with it's entire body on top of the water. The moccassin will only have it's head above the water.

Fact: They are all deadly but the only ones I fear are the ones that can survive being shot in half by my wife with her 38 loaded with rat shot.(she never met a snake that she didn't like....to shoot)

That reminds me of the time my brother and I were night fishing on Ray Hubbard. We had an old flat bottom boat. We set the trotline out and baited it. We went back to the bank, waited about two hours, went back out and ran the trotline. We had some good size cats.

We ran out of cut bait. We noticed there were hundreds of frogs everywhere along the bank. So we caught a bunch of frogs went back out and started baiting the trotline again. We got halfway through and there was a jerk on the line about five hooks down from where we just baited. We pulled the boat back to that area of the trotline. We had another nice cat. I took it off the trotline and felt another jerk. So we pulled our boat down to it. When I raised the line up I had the biggest Cottonmouth I had every seen, holding onto the frog.

Well, about that time it let go of the frog and into the boat it came. Instantly, I grabbed it at the back of the head and held on to it with a death grip. My brother was scared to death. He finally composed himself. I was scared to let go of the snake fearing that it would bite me. My brother came up with an idea. He kept a bottle of whiskey in the boat. He told me to relax my grip just enough so the snake would open his mouth and he would pour some of the whiskey in his mouth and when the snake started losing his senses he told me to sling the snake as far as I could. Luckily it worked. He poured the whiskey into the snake�s mouth and I slung the snake about 30 yards.

We took a minute to settle down and we started baiting the trotline line again. We were almost at the end of the trotline and I hear this banging on the side of the boat. I thought it was my brother so I told him to stopit or �you�ll scare the fish away�. He said, it wasn�t him. I went back to baiting the last three hooks on the trotline. When all of sudden we hear the banging on the side of the boat again. We looked at each other and I aimed the spotlight at the direction of the noise into the water and there was that same snake. He had swam back to the boat and he had another frog in his mouth.

True Story

That reminds me of a time a few weeks ago, fishing in the trees. About 20ft way we heard a big splash, and of course we start moving our way toward it. Not knowing the 6ft moccasin is moving towards us, luckily the 410 grabbed it before it grabbed us.

Dunno if this is true, but my dad says that the reflection off of the metal is what attracts them. We killed another one today coming toward the boat just like the other one, not quite as big though. Anyone else confirm this?

The way to identify them at a quick glance is that the watersnake will swim with it's entire body on top of the water. The moccassin will only have it's head above the water.

WRONG!!!!!!!!!!

Actually you have it backwards. The moccasin will have it's entire body on top of the water and the water snake will only have it's head up. Either way, I usually about **** myself when I get startled by either one.

Good story. Are you sure that the snake wasn't comming back for another snort to wash down the frog with?

I bet PETA would have a field day with that story. I can see it now. FISHERMAN GIVES YOUNG INNOCENT COTTONMOUTH ALCOHOL...WHAT WAS HE DOING??? Kinda reminds me of the Michael Jackson trial.

That's the best reason I've ever heard to fish deep water condos.
NO TREES

Yep, He liked that whiskey!

Speaking of snakes, last night I was fishing a little pond and saw about a 4 foot water snake (not a moccasin) TRYING to eat about a 14" catfish. He had the head of the catfish in his mouth, but couldn't get past the pectoral fins of the catfish because the fish had them locked out. I watched for over an hour, and the situation never changed. The fish was still alive and I could see its gills pumping water through the snakes mouth. Every couple of minutes, the fish would flop and pull the snake into the water, and then the snake would swim back to the waters edge and pull the fish just onto the edge of the pond. The bank was steep rock, so the snake couldn't get the fish entirely out of the water. I still wonder who won that battle. I figure the snake was involved and the fish was committed to the situation. Kinda like your breakfast plate of bacon and eggs. The chicken was involved, but the pig was committed.

My son and I watch two moccasins shimmy up into a boathouse at Texoma earlier this spring. You could see them crawling along the walkways between the boats. If you have your boat in a boathouse, you need to inspect and shake things out good before you go out.

We saw a guy who owned one of the stalls inside the boathouse a few days later and told him about watching them. I bet he is wishing there was a good snake-away product that would work on a boathouse.