Snake Season Is Around The Corner.

[Feathers and Fins]

IF it was close to 5 feet heck enve 4 feet it was probably a water snake. HUGE and I mean HUGE cottonmouth seldom get near 4 feet. I have a friend with the biggest ive ever seen. It was raised in captivity with the best of care and feeding and is only 42 inches long. Captive animals kept properly will outgrow the wild animals as they will be in better health and not need to expend the energy in hunting that a wild animal will. Also they have the optimal heat ranges year round to promote growth.

Its like the pictures you see of Rattlers that are 8 feet long. I love reading the reports of them and seeing the pictures. Most the time they are stretched out and a snake can be stretched 20% intact and a skinned snake can be stretched as much as 40% of its original size. But alive they are nowhere near that size.

[dgames]

IF it was close to 5 feet heck enve 4 feet it was probably a water snake. HUGE and I mean HUGE cottonmouth seldom get near 4 feet.

It seemed really big, but there is no doubt it may have grown some in my mind and it was back in the late 90's. The mind does funny things with time.

I have always wondered if it was a cottonmouth or water snake. When I read the deal from the Oklahoma snake website a year or so ago about cottonmouths swimming on the surface, I hadn't previously been aware of that distinction. In my mind I had always remembered both snakes somewhat 'skating' across the surface which has led me to think it was possibly a cottonmouth. Either way, it scared the heck out of me.

In your experience, does the 'swimming on the surface' vs 'swimming with body partly submerged' factor hold true as an identifier?

[Justin Spencer]

I talk to people almost everyday of the summer that saw 5 foot copperheads and cottonmouths on their floats, and when I tell them they are watersnakes they USUALLY get defensive and say they know what a copperhead or cottonmouth is. I've quit even mentioning it to them that what they are seeing aren't poisonous since very few want to believe they didn't really have a near death experience.

That being said, after watersnakes, black rat snakes and copperheads are the two next most prevalent snakes around here so watch out at night especially and always shine a light where you are stepping during the big heat waves.

[dgames]

I talk to people almost everyday of the summer that saw 5 foot copperheads and cottonmouths on their floats, and when I tell them they are watersnakes they USUALLY get defensive and say they know what a copperhead or cottonmouth is.

I hear you. Here in OK, any snake in the water is automatically a water mocassin and on land a copperhead. I had a plumber run a gas line for my grill a few years ago and he killed a 'copperhead' that was under a mulch bag next to my house. He told my wife that whenever you find one, there is always another. She called me at the office, somewhat freaked out thinking we might have a copperhead in our house. When I got home, here was the dead snake I found

Not exactly a copperhead. This is when I found the OK snakes website and figured this is a brownsnake http://www.oksnakes....0&solid=0&all=0

[Feathers and Fins]

Swimming on the water Ive seen them head out and head down. And beleive me i know how they grow in the mind. One of my favorite call outs was a lady called 911 for a 10 foot rattler in her pool. When i got there I asked her if it was still there and it was, all 2 feet of the water snake lol... Now I did get a call out for a 20 foot snake in a pool once, thinking it was certainly another water snake i went out there and when i looked in the pool i had to call for back-up. Apparently unknown to the mother of the house her son had been keeping a 16 foot Anaconda as a pet in the shed outside. I hate condas to begin with but seeing this monster I called for help we got the snake and then the son came home... I sure would not have wanted to be that kid when he said how did my snake get out right in front of his mom...

Florida is a interesting place and you never knew what you were going to find or encounter. Iguanna's were fun and profitable lol

[Al Agnew]

Cottonmouths...yes, most of the time when I've seen them swimming or just floating on the surface, their whole body is on the surface. It always appears as the whole body is floating. Usually their head is up, at an angle. Usually they are very dark in color with very obvious yellowish markings around their lips. But coloration can vary both with age and with how freshly molted they are. I've never seen harmless watersnakes swim with their bodies "floating" like that, usually their heads are out of the water but their bodies are mostly submerged. Most of the cottonmouths I've seen in recent years have been about 24-28 inches long. They are very thick-bodied, and the triangular head is very obvious. Some watersnakes have the suggestion of a triangular head, but if you look at Ron's photo, you can see how obviously triangular and wider than the neck the head is on a cottonmouth.

Copperheads...although Fins and Feathers said that their markings can vary, I've never seen one that didn't have large, hourglass-shaped dark bars, with the thinnest part of the hourglass in the middle of the back. And every one I've seen was coppery to almost flesh-colored with the much darker hourglass markings. Copperheads are not aquatic snakes, but you'll occasionally see one swimming, and when they swim their bodies "float" just like cottonmouths. The biggest poisonous snake I've ever seen in the water in the Ozarks was a copperhead, not a cottonmouth. I saw it on the James River a few years ago. I was in my solo canoe, and happened to look upstream, and a good 30 yards upstream was a big snake swimming toward me. I noted that it was swimming like a cottonmouth, but was rather bright coppery in color. As it got close it was obviously a copperhead, and I'd guess somewhere around 32-34 inches, which is way bigger than any other copperhead I've ever seen. It swam right up the front end of the canoe, which was sideways to the current at the time, and I watched closely to see if it attempted to come in, but it just kept going, to finally come out of the water at a log jam a few yards downstream.

[ollie]

As long as I have lived in the Ozarks and that has been pretty much my whole life, I can truely say I have only seen a cotton mouth less than five times and a copperhead maybe a couple dozen times. Everytime I saw a cotton mouth it was crossing the stream floating on the water except once in which it was sunning on a big rock. The copperheads have always been around wood. I have yet to come across a timber rattler of any kind and I spend a lot of time around creeks and woods. Good info posted and almost always those water snakes like to give you a scare! Head up and coming for you and all. Had a big water snake chase a friend and I out of a hole we were fishing. My friend freaked out and was walking on water to get out of there! Of course I never let him forget it either. lol

[strangercreek]

I guess this is a good place for this. I took this hilarious pic at Roaring River a few years ago. The snakes expression makes me chuckle. Of course the "oh my god its a water moccasin" crowd was gathered 'round at that moment as well. I remember telling people to look at the eyes, as the pupils were round (not a viper, I thought that still holds true, but I'm not a herpetologist). It also doesn't look anything like a cottonmouth or copperhead IMO

[Justin Spencer]

We enjoy dazzling the "oh my god its a water moccasin" crowd by grabbing the watersnakes by the tail, usually using a paddle to keep the business end at bay and then saying do you think I would do this if it was a cottonmouth. Usually that convinces them that maybe they were wrong. In 8 summers here I have only seen one cottonmouth, who ended up in pieces due to a 60" cut gravely. And many copperheads. Several people have been bitten by copperheads, one pulling a Steve Irwin impression while Amy told him it was a copperhead and he better leave it alone, and one stepped on at night. Copperheads do not want to bite, and we have had several close calls picking up limbs and finally noticing we have been playing just feet from a copperhead that prefers to stay still and go unnoticed. I enjoy snakes, although they still startle me, but having venomous snakes in a campground is something that is not cool!

[jdmidwest]

Snake have excellent hearing and will retreat at the sound of gunfire. Just another reason to carry a signaling device with you on the river........