Copperhead under the seat

[blairarnold]

I had a client and friend named James in my office yesterday. He got to talking about fishing with his wife's grandfather, Clyde, a man I knew all my life who was a real character, funny as a crutch, and is no longer with us.

Clyde had a nice sized pond behind his house and James kept a small 12 foot flatbottom boat on the bank. When they would go fishing together, they would drag the boat into the water, James would always sit in the front of the boat and scull them around, and Clyde would sit in the back.

James said one day they went fishing and after a little while he heard Clyde stomp the bottom of the boat. They kept fishing and ever so often James would hear Clyde stomp the boat as hard as he could. After the 4th or 5th time James finally turned around and asked Clyde what in the world (not exact quote) he was doing. Clyde said there's a copperhead under my seat and he keeps sticking his head , and I keep trying to stomp it.

I just died laughing. Any one else would have been out of the boat with a copperhead an inch or two from his feet and legs, but Clyde just kept on fishing. Just like Clyde.

[AtticaFish]

My wife almost jumped ship (we actually took on some water) when a spider came out from under the seat right next to her. Luckily we were close enough to shore that I paddled us over with her looking like one of those statues on the front of a pirate ship! She jumped to "safety" probably 3' from shore, still don't know how she made it? If it was a snake, no doubt the boat and all of my tackle would be at the bottom of the lake.

[wharfrat]

My daughter who is 23 now, has a way with snakes. Shortly after she began to walk, she would pick up snakes. Spiders would freak her out, but snakes were completely different. I haven't seen her around any since her teens, but up until that time she could go right up to one and pick it up. If I got near one, they would go into some striking pose and I'd just walk away. Her on the other hand would see one, and she would walk right up to them and reach down either in the middle of their body or near the tail and pick them up. I never saw one with her that felt threatened. She would mess with them for a long time, letting them crawl all over her. She started this around 3 years old. Could you imagine seeing your 3 yr old playing with a snake.
I've never seen her with a venomous snake. Once I new she had this talent, I made sure I educated her about snakes, just in case she went after a bad one.
I guess she has grown out of it, because I haven't seen her with one for about 8 or 10 years.

[blairarnold]

Your daughter must have been a "snake whisperer".

[gabowman]

To me...there's only one kind of good snake, and that's a DEAD 'UN!!:o

[STUMP HUNTER]

You got that right gabowman!!!!

[fyrfytr112]

My dad and I were at the river the other day, I was going up on the bank to grab a tree limb to push it out of the way. As I was reaching towards it, I said to myself thats a weird looking branch. Well soon as I grabbed I realized it wasnt a branch......... It was a D@MN green snake laid up in the tree. I screamed like a girl and about knocked my dad off in the river. I had the heebee jeebies the rest of the day.

[blairarnold]

When I was 9 years old, I went to a summer camp just outside of where I live and my counselor was from Alabama, and he loved to fish. He told me a story about fishing there in a slough that was 10 ft. deep and had a water moccasin (sp?) drop in his 10 ft. boat, and he bailed out. He said in 10 ft. water he made it to the bank and was not wet above his waist.

[fishingpox]

No copperheads but have had a couple of water snakes fall in my boat...i sure must be ugly ,they left as fast as they could

[Arkie John]

That's funny! The ole' guy really liked to fish, it seems.

aj