Cottonmouth Water Moccasin

The story about the Rattlesnake coming to the boat reminds me of a situation that happened as we fished a tournament on Back Bay, Virginia during the 1980s. I had fished the Bay many times and loved to fish topwater baits over the thick grass. However, this weekend, the water in the Bay was the color of chocolate milk from all the recent rain.

I figured that instead of taking my Ranger bass boat, I would take my large jon boat. To explain this reasoning, a little background is in store. During World War II, meat was rationed and the general public was not getting enough protein. The power that be decided that they would dig a series of canals through Knotts Island. They would then catch carp and put them in the canals to purge the mud from them and sell them for food. Fortunately, the war ended before this became a big force, but the canals had been completed. At the entrance to the canals, pilings were driven into the bottom to prevent the carp from getting out.

Launching in the morning, I cranked up the 25 hp Evinrude on my jon boat and headed for Knotts Island. Seeing the entrance to the canal just ahead, I timed it perfectly, running up to the pilings, cutting the outboard back to idle, waiting for the wake to lift the boat and carry it forward, and applying full power once again. This method worked perfectly every time I used it and this was no exception.

We moved on up the canal to the first intersection with another arm of the canal. At that point, since Power Poles had not yet been invented, I moved to the right of the intersection. There, I trimmed the outboard down into the mud and put the trolling motor down into the mud at the bow. We commenced fishing in three directions. We caught a number of bass and a bigger number of bowfin.

All of a sudden, I noticed a cottonmouth water moccasin swimming down the canal on our left, heading right for the boat. My partner is deathly afraid of snakes. Thinking of how to handle this situation, I turned around to him and said, "We have a situation coming and I need you to be calm and listen to what I am going to tell you". I then pointed out the snake and said, "That is a cottonmouth water moccasin. He is more afraid of you than you are of him. They always swim in a straight line, never going around anything they can go over or under. That snake is going to swim up to the boat, come over the side, crawl across the boat and go out the other side. You need to stay calm and do not move". He then said, "If that snake comes in the boat, I am going over the side." I replied, "Go ahead, there are fifty more in the water. Just sit still and nothing will happen." At that point, he decided that he would take the net and kill the snake. I asked him if he really thought that puny net would kill this big snake." He finally decided to sit down, but would not relax.

Sure enough, the snake swam up to the boat, came over the side, crawled across the middle seat, went back over the other side, and continued on his way. We continued to catch fish and ended up second and third in the tournament.

Another great adventure on the water.

Charlie........