Snakes on a Boat!!

[Brayberry]

1 hour ago, NCbassraider said:

Wow, that's pretty far north to find a moc.  Most of the confirmed sightings of mocs in NC are in the SE part of the state.  The rest are mistaken identities.  NC Wildlife has Chatham out of the range of the water Moc on their map which means there has never been a confirmed sighting there.

 

The Northern water snake has evolved over time to take on the colors, patterns and behaviors of mocs and copperheads for defensive purposes.  They will even hold their mouth open and show off an adapted white mouth to mimic the "cottonmouth". They are much more convincing as a water moc than a copperhead.

 

Most experts will tell you that the majority of sightings of mocs in NC are mostly mistaken identity.  Also, pool owners in FL will tell you that a moc will rarely get itself caught in a skimmer.  They are too good in the water and typically push the skimmer lid right off.

 

There are plenty of confirmed sightings of Cottonmouths in Virginia, just a FYI

[dirvin21]

12 hours ago, Kyhokie said:

Lol, had to look where you were from mate! I know Texas has it's share of venomous serpents, but we don't hold a candle to the land down under lol. Also, what type of fish is that in your background pic? Not the profile picture, the background one. 

that's an Eastern freshwater cod  (Maccullochella ikei)

[scaleface]

It just amazes me how many people are afraid of snakes . How many of you actually know someone who has been bitten by a venomous snake . I know of nobody . Its unheard of around here and we have plenty of Timber rattlers and Copperheads .

 

Or even a non-venomous one .

[NCbassraider]

12 hours ago, Brayberry said:

 

There are plenty of confirmed sightings of Cottonmouths in Virginia, just a FYI

Not plenty, very few.  Like NC, they are very limited.  The link below shows how limited they are.

 

Again, most are mistaken identity.

https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.virginiaherpetologicalsociety.com/venomous-look-a-likes/cottonmouth-look-a-likes/images/Virginia-cottonmouth-map.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.virginiaherpetologicalsociety.com/venomous-look-a-likes/cottonmouth-look-a-likes/cottonmouth.htm&h=344&w=778&tbnid=NEM4Go6vcPLzBM:&tbnh=93&tbnw=211&usg=__uGswyNBq13VpHHg5hlWEzk_0KIs=&vet=10ahUKEwjm9P3FipjUAhUCNiYKHZu0AbwQ9QEILzAA..i&docid=_mbToSI58MP-PM&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjm9P3FipjUAhUCNiYKHZu0AbwQ9QEILzAA

[hunterPRO1]

snakes.... KILL IT WITH FIRE!!!! 

[Tyler21]

The only good snake is a dead snake

[hunterPRO1]

1 hour ago, Tyler21 said:

The only good snake is a dead snake

really ? what about king snakes ? which are harmless to us but eat rattlesnakes.... seems like you might would want to keep those around rather than kill them

[Choporoz]

This guy in Australia WISHES it was a rattlesnake trying to get into his boat

 

http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/29/world/great-white-shark-boat-australia-trnd/

[Darren.]

You guys that just want to kill snakes are wimps  

20 hours ago, NCbassraider said:

Not plenty, very few.  Like NC, they are very limited.  The link below shows how limited they are.

 

Again, most are mistaken identity.

https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.virginiaherpetologicalsociety.com/venomous-look-a-likes/cottonmouth-look-a-likes/images/Virginia-cottonmouth-map.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.virginiaherpetologicalsociety.com/venomous-look-a-likes/cottonmouth-look-a-likes/cottonmouth.htm&h=344&w=778&tbnid=NEM4Go6vcPLzBM:&tbnh=93&tbnw=211&usg=__uGswyNBq13VpHHg5hlWEzk_0KIs=&vet=10ahUKEwjm9P3FipjUAhUCNiYKHZu0AbwQ9QEILzAA..i&docid=_mbToSI58MP-PM&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjm9P3FipjUAhUCNiYKHZu0AbwQ9QEILzAA

 

You are correct that most are mistaken. I find the majority

of sightings are Northern watersnakes. And as your linked map

shows, they're in my area.

 

My sons and I, and my brother, have been snake hunting around

one of our local reservoirs and have caught (my bro handles the 

venomous) cottonmouths and copperheads. One is attached from

around Harwood's Mill Reservoir maybe 8 years ago, not sure.

 

I really need to find/post my cottonmouth video at Harwood's Mill...

 

Edited May 31, 2017 by Darren.
Spelling corrections...

[gardnerjigman]

On 5/27/2017 at 2:16 AM, Bluebasser86 said:

I've never had one get in the boat, but had a couple try. Usually I have the high pitched screams from @gardnerjigman to repel them from the boat though. 

Gator ain't ever been about that lol

[NCbassraider]

7 hours ago, Darren. said:

You guys that just want to kill snakes are wimps  

 

You are correct that most are mistaken. I find the majority

of sightings are Northern watersnakes. And as your linked map

shows, they're in my area.

 

My sons and I, and my brother, have been snake hunting around

on of our local reservoirs and have caught (my bro handles the 

venomous) cottonmouths and copperheads. One is attached from

around Harwood's Mill Reservoir maybe 8 years ago, not sure.

 

I really need to find/post my copperhead video at Harwood's Mill...

 

That is a very light colored cottonmouth you have pictured there but you are correct, it is a moc. A lot of people would think its a copperhead and that makes people think that they share the same habitat.  They also see Northern water snakes with a similar pattern and associate copperheads with water. 

 

Copperheads prefer dry habitats and will rarely swim.  Obviously, mocs will be found in water habitats.  Most of the time, in the Southeast you either have cottonmouths or copperheads in you area but not usually both, although there are exceptions.

Here in the Charlotte area, we have copperheads, no water mocs.

 

The Northern water snake makes it confusing as they are everywhere and have adapted color patters to mimic the copperhead and cottonmouth.

 

Here is good rule of thumb, if you see a snake swimming and the entire body is on top of the water, you are looking at a cottonmouth.  If only about half of it's body is buoyant, it is not a cottonmouth and chances are very slim it is a copperhead, even if it looks like one.  It's most likely a non-venomous water snake.

[Darren.]

11 hours ago, NCbassraider said:

Copperheads prefer dry habitats and will rarely swim.  Obviously, mocs will be found in water habitats.  Most of the time, in the Southeast you either have cottonmouths or copperheads in you area but not usually both, although there are exceptions.

Here in the Charlotte area, we have copperheads, no water mocs.

 

The Northern water snake makes it confusing as they are everywhere and have adapted color patters to mimic the copperhead and cottonmouth.

 

Here is good rule of thumb, if you see a snake swimming and the entire body is on top of the water, you are looking at a cottonmouth.  If only about half of it's body is buoyant, it is not a cottonmouth and chances are very slim it is a copperhead, even if it looks like one.  It's most likely a non-venomous water snake.

 

We've got copperheads, cottonmouths, and canebrake rattlers

here, though the canebrake is quite rare to find. I've not seen

one in the wild yet, but plenty of cottonmouths and copperheads.

 

Here's another of the young CM, as well as a large CM I had an 

encounter with years before, same reservoir. I found the video,

but is too large to upload...

 

 

[Darren.]

22 hours ago, scaleface said:

It just amazes me how many people are afraid of snakes . How many of you actually know someone who has been bitten by a venomous snake . I know of nobody . Its unheard of around here and we have plenty of Timber rattlers and Copperheads .

 

Or even a non-venomous one .

 

I know of one. My brother  in 1981, canebrake in his collection,

over over 40 snakes, a number of which were venomous...thankfully

he pulled through!!

 

I've been tagged numerous times by non-venomous snakes I can't tell you

the number, but both captive and in the wild. Every snake handler/collector

has been tagged in the line of work/hobby. Something you get used to, and

it'll happen even with proper handling.

[fishwizzard]

A few weeks ago I was wading by a ruined mill. I saw about 3' of a shed snake skin laying on the bank, with more of it under a flat piece of rubble.  I wanted to see how long it was, so I flipped the rubble only find the very cranky owner of said skin.  

 

I should have expected it, but I still yelled a little. 

[frosty]

7 minutes ago, Bunnielab said:

A few weeks ago I was wading by a ruined mill. I saw about 3' of a shed snake skin laying on the bank, with more of it under a flat piece of rubble.  I wanted to see how long it was, so I flipped the rubble only find the very cranky owner of said skin.  

 

I should have expected it, but I still yelled a little. 

At least when you peed your pants you can blame it on wading