Stay out of Tawakoni. That is cottonmouth usa.

Watch out for snakes when going under trees and branches. For some reason they like to drop into boats, and I'd suspect they do the same to a tube.

Our part of Texas has the non-venomous Diamondback Water Snake.......highly aggressive in the water. At sunset, had one swim to us from shoreline and repeatedly fight slapping him with our rods to get into boat with us. and he won. He stayed aggressive in boat until a well swung oar convinced him into disappearing under boat drivers seat and with me steering boat backward from sitting in front deck back to ramp and trailer, he rode in boat to our home and is now buried in our yard.

Never wanted to tube float our local lake since.

Yea, freak incidents can happen from time to time. Anybody remember the killer rabbit and President Carter? http://www.narsil.org/index/peopl/jimmycarter/killerrabbit

Porta

I can relate to the Diamondback Water Snake problem. I've discovered many of them in my bait traps. Removing them can be a problem sometimes.

below whitney dam once while in my kayak I had some snake (not sure
what kind) making a b line straight towards me, I tried slapping the water real hard with
my paddle. all it did was somewhat slow the snake down. it acted like it was trying
to get into the kayak. after that didn't work, I just paddled like hell to get away.
only time that's happened. sometimes while on my boat I see some biga$$ snakes out
sunning on root balls sticking out of the river. some of them look to be 5-6 ft
long. they haven't bothered me. but I don't get any closer to them then I have to

When I used to tube fish, I kept a small .22lr pistol loaded with rat shot...if I couldn't deter a snake with my rod, it got a load of rat shot...I only worried about the fanged variety or the one's pulling on my stringer...really, I always seemed to worry about gators more than snakes, since I had the snake thing figured out....gators less than six feet will usually avoid a confrontation with you, gators over that length may choose to ignore you...OR NOT! It is the "or not" that always worried me.

I have had several encounters with snakes in the lake. I had a great fishing hold the cove of Ray Hubbard. This was also the home to a cotton mouth home/breeding area/ community ha. During a 4 hour fishing session I would see over 30-40 snakes go in and out of that bank about 50 feet away. Once in the same spot I dropped a small perch in between the rocks I was sitting on and out came a baby snake (I am sure his Dad was not far away but I was not staying to find out). Also in Hubbard, my friend had a stringer of fish in the water off of the tube and when he pulled them up and a snake was eating one of the fish. I don�t play with snakes but I keep a .22 pistol with rat shot in my tackle box for snake encounters.

I'd probably sink my boat.

I have come across a few snakes in New Mexico and Texas, snakes out in deep water get tired of swimming and want to come aboard, had a very large rattlesnake try that at Cochiti lake, the water snakes of Texas have been easy to avoid. Had one cottonmouth come out of the brush when slapping the moss off a lure, saw there was nothing to eat and went back in. I am more concerned about coming across one while walking around. Snakes do provide the eco-system with a necessary function, so live and let live.

I had a snake in my tube with me one time onlything I new to do was stay calm. I just kept slowly moving around he finally decided to leave so did I.

Diamondback -cottonmouth -water vipers

The cool thing about ratshot...it just bounces off the boat...no muss, no fuss, no damage...that said, I am not sure I would shoot an inflatable from point blank range....

ever shot ratshot at a soda can? enough Said for the inflatable you will swim with the fish and the snake maybe dead if your aim was good LOL.

Wood ore and and some nails...