I wonder what it is that really attracts them, the free meal, blood smell, etc.

A friend told me a long time ago, in Texas never let anything hang in the water, not even your feet.

Thanks guys (and gals). Guess I'll start carrying the bait bucket when after Red Ears.

This snake was huge. He was every bit of 5 foot long. After he latched onto the second fish, I decided to pull the stringer up on the platform. The snake came right up with them still attached to the fish. He lay there holding onto the fish for a couple of minutes. After he disengaged from the fish, he just sat there for about 5 minutes protecting his stringer.

I called another fisherman over and we stood there and gawked at the size of this snake. The snake flopped back in the water and slowly swam away.

Unfortunately, I botched the photo - I was a little distracted. After I left, the other guy saw the snake again and had it strike at 3 different lures. I guess it was really hungry and, perhaps, a little upset that it lost its buffet.

The same happened to me not long ago, my friend who is a marine biologist and works with venomous snakes told me that cooking the fish will denature the poison.

Are you sure it was a mocassin? This is typically unnatural behavior. Many snakes look like these and people identify them improperly. Most of the water mocassins I've come across that have been attactched to a fish almost instictively let it go way before I touched a stringer. People mistake them for savages, although they will hit free meal, I don't think you had a mocassin on board. Plus when you said it guarded it, that made me think that it wasn't a mocassin as most the ones that I have run across have been very.... skiddish. But either way I wouldn't of chanced it either since I don't know what you pulled up with your stringer.

I know a number of fisherman who mistake diamond back water snakes (not dangerous) with water moccasins.