Ever had a water moccasin get in your boat?

[Highcentered]

Never had or heard of a water moccasin getting in the boat from the water but it's the one snake in the south that scares the hell out of me. I know snakes will drop out of trees into a boat but I'm more of an open water kind of guy. It's always in the back of my mind while night fishing. I've also been in a cove in April when hundreds if not thousands of snakes were most likely making little snakes. It was fascinating and terrifying at the same time. This cove is known as "sailboat cove" because it's where a lot of sailboat owners dock their sailboats. Wonder if any of them got in their boat for a cruise and found a legless squatter? lol.

[21XDC]

I've had water snakes swim up to boats and get into the jackplate. Then try and come aboard. Only on Lk Erie. Lots of these snakes there.

[n2bassn]

I have often wondered about this subject. I keep a 22 caliber with bird shot handy everyday I’m fishing. We have water moccasins here and i don’t trust them.

[cmclairday2]

Never had a cottonmouth get in, but have had a water snake or two make its way on board. Came up through the jackplate, like Mike said.

[Quillback]

So far, no.

[dave540]

I posted this several years ago.
Several years ago I was fishing offshore on Lake Eufaula, AL and a snake was swimming toward me head-on. It dove before it got to the boat. I looked all around the boat to make sure it wasn't around the outboard. I kept fishing for another hour and headed to the club weigh-in. Went about five miles to the ramp,trailered, got fish out, weighed, put all gear away and headed home. Backed the boat into boat shelter and here is this snake coiled up in the bottom of the boat. It was over four feet long and fat. I went in to the house and got my daughter as a witness because I know no one would believe this fish tale. It was now coiled up under the console. Daughter asked if it was real. I poked it with a rake handle and it started crawling around. Lifted it out with the rake handle and let it go. The only place it could have been without me seeing it would have been under the console. My boat was a single console Ranger 518. I often wonder what I would have done if it had dropped into my legs at 50mph. I did not get a good look at it before it dove. It was a water snake but I didn't know that until I got home.

[Cgrob]

Yes Tablerock lake 2003, fishing up the James River right across from Cape Fair Marina. Good friend of mine and myself were fishing a point and saw a water moccasin swimming by shore, kind of a common thing so never gave it a thought. I cast my Carolina rig towards shore probably 15 feet from it and I’ll be darn if it didn’t make a 90 degree turn and come right towards the boat. Stunned my buddy says do you have an oar to hit it with if it comes in, of course I said no. The snake swam right up the side of the boat by the driver’s seat and onto the bottom of the boat. We look at each other life WTF, and proceeded to beat the hell out of it with our rod butts that we had in our hands. I assumed we dazed it enough to flip it in the water with said rods and trolled over to the marina on high speed and got a 12 pack of beer and that concluded are day of fishing. We still talk about it today, still go there and fish and swim and see them swimming but they have never bothered us agin. I guess a first time for everything and hopefully the last.

[Highcentered]

I posted this several years ago.
Several years ago I was fishing offshore on Lake Eufaula, AL and a snake was swimming toward me head-on. It dove before it got to the boat. I looked all around the boat to make sure it wasn't around the outboard. I kept fishing for another hour and headed to the club weigh-in. Went about five miles to the ramp,trailered, got fish out, weighed, put all gear away and headed home. Backed the boat into boat shelter and here is this snake coiled up in the bottom of the boat. It was over four feet long and fat. I went in to the house and got my daughter as a witness because I know no one would believe this fish tale. It was now coiled up under the console. Daughter asked if it was real. I poked it with a rake handle and it started crawling around. Lifted it out with the rake handle and let it go. The only place it could have been without me seeing it would have been under the console. My boat was a single console Ranger 518. I often wonder what I would have done if it had dropped into my legs at 50mph. I did not get a good look at it before it dove. It was a water snake but I didn't know that until I got home.

If I would have seen it at 50mph chances are high the kill switch would have been put to use as I jumped away from the snake and/or drawers soiled.

[jaderhold]

If you see a snake floating abnormally high in the water, it's the venomous variety. Copperheads, cotton mouths, and rattlesnakes here in Alabama will swim with most of their body completely out of water. They don't dive like a banded water snake. If they are coming for you, you better get away quick because they will get in your boat through your motor rigging, be it a jackplate or just the motor.

[Dosry5]

[QUOTE=dave540;12913899]I posted this several years ago.
Several years ago I was fishing offshore on Lake Eufaula, AL and a snake was swimming toward me head-on.

was his name John Durham Jr?

[Crappie Bob]

I keep an old sledge hammer handle on the side rod box lid for snakes and small gators, only had to use it once so far.

[Hoot]

Not yet and having that happen is one of my biggest fears and probably shouldn't be reading this thread

[TroyBoy30]

nope

[Highcentered]

One thing I wanted to do to my buddy when I was younger was sneak a realistic looking snake in his livewell on a trip where we were keeping fish so he'd see it when he went to pull the fish out at the end of the trip. I quickly decided it wasn't worth him shooting holes in his boat...or me when he put 2 and 2 together

[RMG63]

Great stories ! Water moccasins are quite aggressive and anything you do to agitate them will result in them making a b line for your boat !
One year many moons ago, I was pre-fishing a tournament in late April on Richland Chambers here in Texas. Went into this cove about 1 acre in overall size and it was full of buckbrush. Started getting close to the 1st bush to fish and noticed all these black looking objects dangled in the brush. As I got to the 1st bush within pitching distance I noticed they were all moccasins just absorbing sunlight !! Must have been over 50 of them in each individual bush.
Needless to say I put the trolling motor on 10 and got away from them as quick as possible !! Winning stringer may have been in all those bushes but it didn't matter !!

One other story was when I was a teenager and we were on Kentucky Lake. A lot folks used to make/have home made fish baskets to keep their fish alive at the dock their boats were in. Naturally as a teenager I decided to pull one up and see what was in it. When I pulled it up, at least a 4-5ft moccasin had tried to go thru the chicken wire that the fish were in and got his head stuck and could'nt get out !! I dropped that basket and screamed like a little girl. Told my dad and he came down and of course the first thing he asked was "Why are you pulling up someone else's fish basket ??" Sht in my pants from a big snake then almost got my ass whooped by my dad !!

All these years fishing I have never got one in my boat ... thank you Jesus !

[C130]

It didn’t get in my boat had a very large rattlesnake come up to my boat on Center Hill Lake in Tennessee many years ago. Friend killed it and put in his cooler we had in the my boat. Like mentioned above they swim really high up out of the water.

[eldridgegolf]

gotta watch close for them spring time of year

[TDobb]

Down in Arkansas last year on spring break I had a water moccasin try to get into my kayak. His head met the edge of my kayak paddle and he wasn't going to get in the kayak any more.

One year when I was a little kid fishing yoyos on the bayou down there with my dad and his buddy. We were baiting the hooks around all the old cypress trees with shiners and I'm sitting in the middle seat of the jon boat. All of a sudden I hear a thud and I look down between my feet and see a big ass fisher spider that had fallen out of a tree. I squealed and jumped in the bayou cause I would rather be in there with the gators and snakes than have that big ass spider between my feet. Dad smashed it with a paddle and helped me back in the boat. Them old guys got a hell of a laugh out of that one.

[xcoach]

Me and a friend were night fishing several years ago in the back of a very narrow slough. I saw a head swimming toward us and told him, you should see the size of the muskrat swimming toward us. Well, it got closer and it was a moccasin and swam right up the the front of the boat and disappeared. That was the end of night fishing for me. Never went again.

[Flash2]

I was fishing one spring day sun was out and warm. Looked back and saw a three foot copperhead laying on the back deck. Was not around any trees and was not sure how long it had been there. I just flipped it out with my rod and it swam off. Always thought what if I did not see it and it would maybe got under my seat and I did not know it.
Fishing at night one time thought I saw something moving in the water. Spotted my light on it and it was a snake swimming right beside my boat. It just kept on swimming and never stopped.