Snakes

[FYfly]

I have only ever seen one rattlesnake while fishing but have been bitten by fair number of non-venomous ones, like flyflinger it was almost always due to my curiosity or stupidity, call it what you will. But if you leave them alone they will leave you alone, usually. An interesting thing concerning the fact that every snake someone sees in the water is instantly labled a water mocasin is that every snake can swim, even if were a rattlesnake from the desert that had never seen any more water then a puddle.

 

[RLeeP]

Snakes... Bah!

I spent a lot of years tramping a lot of PA snake country and if anyone should have been bitten, it's me. I'm about 70% deaf and have a nasty balance problem (inner ear stuff) that means I'm always falling over into bushes and rocks and stuff. If snakes were a problem in PA, I should be dead 25 times or at least be down under 100 lb. from snakebite-induced tissue necrosis.

I think I *may* have seen the southbound end of a northbound rattler on Young Womans. Once.

And that's it.

On the other hand, in a single autumn fishing in the Pisgah NF in western NC, I saw at least a dozen copperheads. They were everywhere and you really did have to watch your Ps and Q's.

The nastiest snake I ever ran into was a water snake on LeBoeuf Creek in Erie County. I used to fish all the medium sized creeks in the area for smallmouth. They were (and probably still are) loaded with bass and some nice ones too, up to 19" on occasion. This snake was crossing the creek in front of me as I waded upstream. When I saw him, I kind of reverted to my childhood and decided to thwack him with my rod tip. That was a mistake. He swam right for me and struck my hip boot a half dozen times in rapid succession. Drove me right out of the creek, it was so creepy. Water snakes are mean..

Oddly, I finally saw my first positively identified rattlesnake about 3 years ago. In SW Wisconsin, no less. This was about the equiv. of seeing a woodland Caribou along Wykoff Run... Well, not quite. But, as I understand it, there are far fewer rattlesnakes in WI than in PA. This one was laying out on a blacktop road. I had to back up twice to be sure what I was seeing. But that's what it was, bigger than life.

I don't even think about snakes unless I am out west (Oregon high desert east of Bend) or down south in the warm season. I think the chances of a venomous snake encounter on the water in PA are probably better than meeting a woodland caribou, but not by much...

 

[Maurice]

Well, here's my bit on snakes....I've seen a few, only one rattler and I can't tell you if it had a triangular shaped head because my friends dad shot its head off with a 357 magnum. It had exactly one fang left and 12 rattles. He shot it the day we were leaving camp in Tionesta when the neighbor who hadn't been to his trailer in years uncovered it. We took it home in the back of the F150 in a sand pail with a bag over it. that was the creepiest 2.5 hour dive I had ever experienced. We were riding home in the bed with the snake. Every now and then it would rattle I guess because of the nervous system.

Another encounter was at the Jam about 5 years ago in on the Frankstown Branch. I had my son with me and Pad and Paul were there too. We entered the river in mid June to fish for trout...it was 92 degrees and the water was about 74. But we were told how good it would be for trout. Unfortunately..Wainzoid never told the trout. Anyway, I thought with the tepid water the best shot at trout would be in the riffles so I told my 10 year old son to stay put on a gravel bar and cast into the pool with a spinner while I worked upstream. After fooling numerous chubs on my light cahill I soon heard him screaming bloody murder... There he was up to the top of his hip boots near the shore 50 yds from where I left him. Pad was between us and went to his rescue. By the itme I had worked downstream to see what was the matter He was worked into a froth over a stick he had been standing on and every time he moved, so did the stick under water. It would bob out of the water and he thought he was being attacked. Pad saved him though...It takes a village.

Third was on another Jam at Penns Creek below the Tunnel at Poe Paddy. It was Sunday and I was with Dave Kile and we crossed the creek. Paul G was downstream about 300 yards fishing the pool. While Dave and I chatted on the bank I looked over the 3 ft ledge and saw two northern watersnakes on a rock. Thinking we were safe and being the imp that I am, I needled the critters and the big one drifted into the water. Dave and I laughed as it traveled in a perfect Bee-line toward Paul. Did I tell you Paul Hates Snakes? I said to Dave when the snake was about half way to Paul..."when do you think we should tell Paul its coming?" He hates snakes..we chuckled and then I shouted, "Hey Paul here comes a snake...." What? "Here comes a snake!" When he saw it he high stepped outta the crik like he was walking on hot coals.

When he got up to us on the bank he said..."Skippy will be a bullfrog before I ever come back here!" And that is the origination of the name Skippy for the rattlesnake Tim B took a picture of.

BTW, this is not the snake...This is a yellow phase Rattler that Tim B took a pic of downstream about a 1/4 mile.

 

[ptail1945]

After reading these stories, I had to chime in. I used to live in Tennessee and went on a hike with the cub scouts. As we were walking down a trail, a copperhead struck at one of the kids. He had about three pairs of socks on so all the snake did was get its fangs hung up in the kids socks. The kid was petrified and just took off running. The hardest part was chasing the kid down as the snake was flopping around. The kid was screaming as the leaders worked to free the snake. It is a picture I'll never forget.

Rattlesnakes will do whatever thay can to stay out of your way. Copperheads , on the other hand, are mean. I remember a ranger in Tennessee saying there are no cottonmouths in Tennessee - they are all in the more southern states. There are lots of rattlesnakes and copperheads at the Pulpit and Pinnacle up by Hamburg. It's a heavily used trail so you won't usually see them on weekends. But if you hike up there during the week, you will see them sunning themselves on the rocks.

 

[PaulG]

Yes, I am very scared of snakes, don't know why but I am. The thing that gets me is Im the guy who always see's them, I don't stick around long enough to see what kind, have seen two rattlers over the years. One on Clarks creek and one on Fishing creek, I seen seven snakes on Fishing creek in one day!

I use a wading stick that I call my, wading stick/snake wacker, which I keep in front of me at all times when Im walking along the stream.

Never kiled a snake but sure don't like them!

PaulG

 

[Coughlin]

I don't like snakes AT ALL. Aside from harmelss, though creepy, water snakes I've run across, I did encounter a rattler on a creek in Potter county. It was sunning itself and I wasn't paying attention until almost on top of it. I finally saw it about five feet ahead of me just as it saw me. No big whoop on the snake's part; it just slithered off into the high grass. As for me, I spent the rest of the trip jumping at every twig and talking loudly to myself when crossing through grassy areas. :-o
Coughlin

 

[Bamboozle]

I don't mind snakes that much since I kinda like them although not on me or biting me. I have seen rattlers and copperheads both in Schuylkill County. All of the places I have been warned about them: Slate, Stony and others I haven't seen one.

On the candy a$$ scale I rate a 100 for bats. Those critters freak me out when they fly around my head at night. I'll take a 100 snakes over a bat any day!

But here's a great story for all of you he-men that are afraid of snakes:

I was fishing the Monocasy Creek in Bethlehem this summer when I saw a young woman, (which naturally attracted my attention); walking along the stream with headphones holding an antenna. I figured she was from the PFBC tracking stocked trout since I was in the AT section. When I asked what she was tracking she told me she was a Lehigh grad student tracking water snakes as a project.

When I asked how she caught them, figuring a GIRL would use a net or snare she said, “oh I just jump in and grab them”. I cracked up since I know I wouldn’t do it in a million years!

 

[RLeeP]

>>On the candy a$$ scale I rate a 100 for bats. Those critters freak me out when they fly around my head at night. I'll take a 100 snakes over a bat any day!>>

When I was a kid, my brother and I used to have fun with the bats on Lake LeBoeuf. We'd be up there plugging for bass with our dad until almost stone dark. Once we quit fishing and the bats were out, we'd tie the biggest bell sinker we could find in the tackle box onto our lines and then stand in the boat, let 3 or 4 feet of line out and twirl it around in the air. It made the bats go nuts because it screwed up their radar. We had them crashing into the lily pads and doing mid-air barrel rolls and even run into the side of the boat on occasion.

 

[Gone4Day]

RLeeP wrote:
When I was a kid, my brother and I used to have fun with the bats ....

An old friend of my dad was a local legend with his shotgun skills, but shooting bats on the wing, in the dark, seemed a bit of a stretch. He had a bunch of flood lights on the front of his farm house pointed up at odd angles in the air. To the uninformed, it looked crazy and they would often make jokes about it, like “you expecting an air attack?” But he’d turn the lights on at dusk and by dark there’d be all kinds of bugs flying around, and bats. Sure enough, when a bat came swooping in he could hit it with a .410 shotgun. I bird-dogged for him one night when I was a little kid and he did kill a few bats. Wounded some and just stunned a bunch. It was fun chasing them though.

Opinion was divided whether he was feeding or killing bats.

 

[albatross]

Maybe we should start a bat thread.

I once hooked a bat on my backcast with a dry fly as a teenager casting for bluegills near dusk on a little pond.

We used to shoot at the bats at my cousin's house with our BB guns. It wasn't as hard as it might seem to hit them, we always thought they were homing in on the BB.

 

[JoeE]

The closet for me was a hit on the boot fishing and not watching. That will send a shock up your spine. I have caught a few rattlesnakes over the years. The last was several years ago my Dad and me were traveling back from Altoona and saved a rattlesnake (yellow phase) and the biggest one I’ve seen in PA from being stoned to dead by a couple of guys. It was funny to watch 2 grown men running around like a couple of scared kids with stones. Luckily they did not hit the snake. It was close to a few houses so we put it in the back of the truck and let it go up on the mountain. They are only trying to survive in this big bad world as I am so I don’t like to see them get killed.


Joe E.

 

[JW1970]

If you aren't seeing rattlers, it doesn't mean they aren't there. My most recent sightings:

Lehigh River
Beaverkill
West Branch of the Delaware
Main Stem of the Delaware
Mud Run

3 out of 5 were on paths or along railroad beds. The other two were swimming across the stream. Anywhere you see one, you can guarantee there are more and a den in the general area.

Watch yourselves, especially you guys who hike away from access points. They're out there and they don't always rattle.

You might also want to check out a show from last season's Pennsylvania Outdoor Life. They didn't say where they were (I'm pretty sure I know), but talk about rattlers. They were everywhere -- I'm not talking a dozen or two. I'm talking maybe 100+.

 

[PaulG]

JW

If you ever find out where they were talking about please let me know, I sure as he!! don't want to go there!

 

[Maurice]

JW1970 wrote:

Watch yourselves, especially you guys who hike away from access points. They're out there and they don't always rattle.

This reminds me of a show I saw onetime. This old kodger is a rattlesnake hunter. He goes to the dens in the area and listens with a funnel and a tube in the dens, if he hears rattles he gets the snakes out and kills them. The narrator indicated that by doing this he is creating a micro population of rattlesnakes that do not rattle. By killing the ones with rattles and not killing the silent types, he is selectively breeding rattle-less rattlesnakes.

He was dismayed that his rattlesnake hunts have been less productive lately but through surveying the dens they found plenty of snakes...just they didn't rattle.

Spooky....

 

[JackM]

And that reminds me of the old saying:

"Female mosquitos are the one's that bite, but the males are the ones that buzzzzzzzz. So if you are out in the woods near dark and hear buzzing, do not worry. But, if you hear nothing......."

 

[Buzzmaker29]

In the 25 years I have fished PA waters (started when I was 5) I have only had a few encounters with snakes. The areas that I have seen the most snakes are the Yough (esp. around Ohiopyle), and Valley Creek. Strange thing is that I fish Meadow Run all the time and even though it is located at Ohiopyle as well I almost never see any snakes there (probably jinxed myself now). I know Valley Creek back in Chester County has a lot of Copperheads (my friend used to catch them), but I never ran into too many while fishing...they seem to come out more at night.
I grew up fishing Darby and Ithan Creeks in Delaware County and had a few encounters there, but nothing more than being startled. The worst was one Opening Day morning (probably around 1990) my friend and I got to Darby Creek around 4 am to get a spot. We grabbed a spot right above the bridge (I forget the name...maybe Saw Mill - where they have the trout tournament, if they still have it, anywho...) and we sat in the darkness between a bunch of leafless bushes. Well, a couple of hours later, as the sun rose, I looked to my right to see a 4 foot snake hanging in the bush about 2 feet from my head...I almost #OOPS# myself. I have no idea how long it was sitting there. Luckily he was gone by 8 am.

 

[Festus]

I h'ain't only ever run into one rattlesnake and that was in the Canyon near the wooden bridge on the Owassee side. Almost sat on the critter.