Water snakes

[quivira kid]

Well there I was, standing on some riprap catching bluegills. Every so often, I'd see a snake swim by... nothing too out of the ordinary. Then one that was easily 3 feet long swam OVER my fly line, and it got me thinking. What in the world would I do if I ever had one of those things latch on to a fly??? The water snakes we have around here aren't poisonous at all, but they are meaner than sin! I can't imagine they'd be very friendly with a leech in their mouth, either.

Anybody ever caught one on accident? On PURPOSE? What would you do... donate a fly to "the cause" or take it back from him?
Bullfrogs on poppers are fun, I just don't know about snakes!

[mnklagoon]

Caught a water moccasin on a fly. I got it off using a taurus judge handgun with 410 shells! Had a logger head turtle eat a pike fly that lotec gave me. We dont have pike but bass like them. I gave the turtle the fly they bite to take the hand!

[ol' blue]

I haven't caught one, but had one attack my line while I had a fish on, and another tried to attack the fish I was bringing in. You are right. They seem to have a nasty attitude, and the state fishing lakes are absolutely full of them.

[Uncle Jesse]

Water snakes in the south are considered poisonous until proven otherwise. I personally have never had a situation where I felt threatened but have had some close encounters. My late friend Pete White was no wimp, BAR man 82nd Airborne, WWII, 2 Purple Hearts. He told me years ago of crappie fishing with minnows on Wilson Lake of the TN River when a cottonmouth dropped into his aluminum semi-vee boat. He said, "I was 12 to 15 ft. off the bank and the next thing I knew I was standing there one the bank. Don't know how I got there, my feet weren't wet." But cottonmouths are nasty tempered, dangerous snakes who will not move out of your way. I had two swimming to the point I was standing on casting, when they got there I was gone as I did not have a proper weapon with me.

[Panman]

When I was a young fellow I was fishing a creek in Utah. I remember flipping the fly along side some grass and a watersnake came swimming/darting?? out and got hooked. I took a rock & dispatched the snake to reptile heaven and went back to fishing. However for the life of me I don't remember if the snake had the fly in the mouth or was foul hooked.

Tim

[tedshuck]

When I was about 10-12 years old, bait fishing with some friends in the Mississippi near Keokuk, IA, I caught a water moccasin. I just reeled it up to the tip top and kept it on the hook and beat it against the side of the boat until it was sufficiently subdued that we could cut the head off with a knife. I don't know that I would want to do this with a valuable fly rod, but with my old solid fiberglass Zebco, it was not a problem.

Ted