By far the best I have found so far.

I am 5'9" and that bad boy is slightly below the level of the deck, plus a little extra is curled over at my hand.

I call that cut bait!

is that a .410 behind you or are you happy to see us???

I'll call you Snake Charmer! Did he taste good? LOL!

You killed a perfectly harmless banded water snake? Why?

Call it what you want but it was water mocassin, it had the worst musty smell after it was dead. You can't see the colors in it well from the picture. And we killed it becuase it was charging the boat. How many posts have we seen lately talking about the difference? This one stayed on the surface the whole time, the whole snake.

You caught me it was a snake charmer, dunno what it tasted like, we went back to fishing.

dont blame you would do the same if i was there water snake or no

Sorry but if it where a moc that big it would have weighed 20 pounds and had a head the size of a coke can and a body as fat as your arm. Cotton mouth is a very stocky snake. Yours was a banded water snake in the wrong place at the wrong time..

The bad smell is also a give away. Banded water snake's first line of defense is to Poop themselfs and they are foul smelling. Moc won't do that, he'll try to bite anything.
Banded:


moc:


moc2:

For whatever it's worth, arlon's right about what kind of snake it is.

the colors vary in each cottonmouth would you agree on that? So you cant by the color.

Let me add some more info, the snake held it's head out of the water not resting it on the water like a water snake. It also would not have been aggressive towards the boat it would have fled. This one didn't flee. Instead it would move towards the boat a few feet and get back into a position to strike. And it did weigh quite a bit, I guess next time I will get a picture of the head and weigh it as more proof.

Also the picture of the ones your showing are of snakes that are flexed up, not stretched out which would make the snake look bigger around. And it was the size of my arm when i pulled it out of the water, I had to stretch it out to get the length of the snake.

And it looked more like the snake in the 1st moc picture. It was't like the first picture.

Whatever it is your about it being in the wrong place at the wrong time. And FYI if it was a water snake so be it, but the next one that tries to get into the boat will be dead too. Bottom line, I can live with snakes as long as they leave me alone.

Yeah, I noticed right away that it was a banded water snake. Nice comparison pictures Arlon. I've caught and handled lots of water snakes and less than a handful moccasins in my 42 years. In all those years I've found 85~90% of those snakes in the water to be non-venomous. If in doubt, a good rule of thumb is if the body looks way too fat for the length of the snake, it's probably a mocassin. Arlon's assesment of "20 lbs and coke can head" is spot on.

Looks nonvenemous to me, too. Easy to tell, though. Just look at the pupils (easier since it is dead). Eliptical--mocassin. Round--nonvenemous watersnake. Can't tell by the picture. Might look in his mouth, too--white mouth and nasty fangs are a pretty good giveaway.

I've got one for ya. Have you ever seen a rattle snake swim?

Snakes are like Cats..the only good ones are dead ones
Good job on that one Bornforit.

And they all look like King Cobras to me......

thanks zeb