snakes on the delta

[sjg]

I was fishing in white slough on friday and had two separate incidents involving snakes swimming towards the boat while i was fishing. It really seemed as if they were trying to get onto the boat. I have never seen anything like that before in nearly 15 years of fishing the delta. Anyone else have an experience like that? Any idea what type of snake it would be and is it anything to worry about? How do you prevent them from getting on board, i swear one snake was trying to climb up the motor! Moderators please feel free to move this to a different board if i posted it in the wrong place. Thanks in advance!

[bassz21]

Yea a buddy of mine and me were out.on friday as well.and we were throwin our frogs arouns and we.saw a couple too they were not near the boat though

[Jason C.]

Chances are it was a King, Gardner or rattle...They were probably tryin to get on the boat, to get out of the water. It happens every now and then. There are a few pretty funny videos on youtube of this happening. As far as it happening on the delta, there are snakes every where lol

[Cooch]

I have actually had two experiences this year with big snakes myself. In both cases, they were 5-6' plus Gopher snakes, they came out of the tules on the bank in little coves and made a B"B line to the boat and came on board. It was as if they were intrigued about our presence and want to come investigate. Both were very friendly snakes which allowed us to pick em up and handle them. Most gopher snakes round here are purty obnoxious, these two were tame as good be and provided quite a lil entertaining experience to our fishing day.

Gopher.jpg (256.84 KiB) Viewed 8942 times

This was the first time I'd ever seen a gopher this big swimming the River, normally ya see smaller gophers about 1-2 feet long. Also quite common are the Garter Snakes(blake with bright yellow or orange stripe down their back) or one of two varieties of Racers(green or black). The Garter and Racers are common as they are amphibious foraging snakes eating slamanders, frogs, dads that all hang around the waters edge. I've never had any of these other two species, come right up and climb on the boat. The incident with Trevor above was kinda funny since he had asked me a couple of hours prior to the snake climbing on board, what types of snakes we have here. Personally, I've never seen a King or Rattler around the river system, although, both species are quite common on the vast dry lands between here and the Mt. Diablo foothills to the west.

[Mitch]

Just a little info for those who see a snake and are worried if they are poisoness, the easiest way to tell is the shape of the head. If it is shaped like an arrowhead, bad deal. A smooth shape is not poisoness, unless it's a viper, but those are not found in this area. (I've been told) Either way, ALL shakes will bite and have TEETH, so be careful in handling any of them. And yes, they will try to get into a boat, HOWEVER, the smaller ones do make a great LIVE BAIT for some great top water action !!! Have fun.............

[Terry Smith]

Had A 4 foot gopher snake in Italian Slough do the same thing to me on Friday. I've seen them from time to time so not uncommon.

[Charles]

I had the exact same thing last week in Disappointment. Anout a 2' garter snake swam up to the boat and crawled up the transom and came right in. I knocked him overboard and he swan back to the shore. F snakes. I hate em!

[sjg]

thank you all so much for the replies. i have never seen this before and was quite shocked to see the snake try to climb into the boat. i never knew it was so common. thanks again.

[bonsaibp]

Anyone ever use one of Doug Hansen"s Snakes on the delta?

[whazup]

I fish the Arizona lakes a lot and have often wondered about lipping a bass that had just eaten a rattler. Can't believe that would have a real positive outcome.

[chf8500]

Good friend I fish with at San Antonio had a 2.5 rattler join him in his boat a couple years ago. Lucky the critter laid out on the center seat so Will saw him in time to pick up a Loomis with a 1/2 oz jig tied on, took a bit but he finally got it anchored and a good toss put the beast back in the water. A goat ropin for sure but can imagine if old rattler would have coiled under the cockpit, I know I still take a look each time I get off the deck in the summer. Gives me the shivers just thinking of the results.

[Dom]

Yep a few years ago my wife and I were fishing Old River way down south my wife was laying on the back deck and I was hard at work fishing , all of a sudden I hear this splashing I look over and this 4-5' snake is swimming like crazy towards the boat I tell my wife to get up she says why ? I say because a snake is coming right at us she jumped up so quick I about died laughing so hard the snake comes on the boat and wraps around the outboard and back deck . Now me being born and raised in Texas we are taught most snakes living around the water are poisonous like moter moccosins,cotton mouths,rattlers,etc.. so I was having no part of this snake i take my loomis imx 844c and proceed to swat at this snake to get it off the boat in the process I broke my tip on the rod and finally the snake just went of the side of the boat to the other side.

I am thinking the reason it was swimming so loud is becuase it was coming thru some fast current and probally used the boat as a resting place to move on to the other side lol was one of the craziest things i hae had happen to me on the delta besides the Sea lion LMAO I dont know what kind of snake it was I am not snake friendly i dont like em much. If it aint warm soft and cuddly I dont want nothing to do with it

[thukidad]

lol.. same thing happen to me at disappointment.. found the snake near the transom.. threw it out of the boat , but it still followed us.. it was quite funny now that i think about it.. had to turn the trolling motor on full just to get away.. i'm always careful going back to the rear deck nowadays

[mac (Doyle McEwen)]

Thursday while pre-fishing Oroville for the WRL event, I noticed something come flying toward me from the shore line trees..It was kind of reddish brown with black wings, flying like a bat out of hell, and it turns out to be exactly that..It slammed into my leg and then lay stunned on the back deck..I was going to pick it up and toss it back into the air, when the little devil tried to bite me..Fearing a rabid bat, I opted then to use one of my lure wraps to pick it up and then tossed it in the water..Somehow it managed to swim about 30 feet to the shore and climb out..I thought sure a bass would nail it before it got to shore, but no such luck..

mac

[fastff]

I was fishing Old River, near Grantline Canal on June 8th when a 4' California King snake came of the rip rap, swam to the boat and then swam back to the rocks. I was half expecting to see it come up on the back deck but it didn't. It acted like it was defending a nest.

[HEH]

Fishing Hensley Lake couple years ago with Son-in-Law. Caught nice bass while SIL yapping something. Land fish and he says "Yeah, nice, but what about the snake in your motor?" I go, "What snake?" SIL, by now was up by the trolling motor and pointed to about 8 inches of brown tail sticking out of void area under my motor. Raised motor; ran motor; banged on motor; snake never moved. SIL says "Guess we'll just have to leave it there" and I replied, "Are you man enough to tell your Mother in Law she can't go into the garage because the snake we brought back with us might be loose?" End of discussion, I grabbed it and gave it a 30 foot fling. Snake swam back to the boat and tried to get back in. We decided to fish the other side of the lake.

Harold

[lunker punker]

Had a 3.5 footer yesterday roll up (gopher snake) and a HUGE one last week swim past me . Drove my dog insane

[ScottyJ]

Fortunately it sounds like most of the snake encounters thus far have been gopher snakes but keep in mind especially if ur on a lake that rattle snakes DO swim and can/will climb into ur boat. I saw a report that the size and abundance of rattle snakes was greatly increased this summer but I'm sure that applies to all snakes as well as we have seen with all these large gopher snakes. May be a good idea to get one of those long "grabber" tools you get that u squeeze the handle and it has that claw on the end so you can reach things in places that are hard to get. Could be a cheap and useful piece of insurance in case u get a visitor.

Scott

[Terry G.]

OK, when is a lure worth this........besides it wasn't a legal catch. It was hooked outside of the mouth..

http://www.bakersfield.com/archive/x735 ... our-nerves

[blkdog812]

here's an article you guy should read:
http://www.bakersfield.com/news/sports/ ... our-nerves

[george]

About fifteen years ago my brother and I headed up to McClure after a graveyard shift at work. I was dozing off in the pasenger seat of the car on the way up to Barretts and about five minutes from the lake he slams on the brakes to the car. I jump up to see what the excitement was about and he say's rattlesnake!!! He then jumps out of the car and proceeds to kill a two foot rattlesnake with a two foot stick and cut the snakes rattles off putting the rattles in the cup holder between us.
We'lll I was now awake, to say the least!
We drive up about another hundred yards and he say's snake again and jumps out, again this one is about eighteen inches long and he smacks it with the stick and cuts its rattles off and again they go in with the first ones.
Now, I am on point and on my toe's and we rent a boat go fishing the rest of the day and I am looking for snakes everywhere; in the rental boat, everywhere I step, everywhere I cast, everything I touch I am looking first.

We finish the day of fishing and head on back home in his car where I transfer my couple of rods along with a canvas bag that contains all of my baits, spare line and terminal tackle.

After throwing my stuff onto the floorboard of my car I head home just after dark and I make the exit off of Hwy 99 turning right and coming up to the stop sign. I make a sharp right turn to get into the far right lane and accelerate.

Immediately I hear a rattlesnake type rattle on the passenger floorboard and it is going at it.
I damn near jump out of the car, slam on the brakes and stop the car in the middle of one rush hour traffic lanes in Modesto. I jump out of the car and almost get ran over by the twenty cars backed up behind me.
I run to the passenger side of the car with a seven Iron that I grabbed out of my golf bag in the trunk and proceed to open the passenger door with an extended arm and ready to run the hell away if that moster of a diamond back comes at me.

I open the door and hear nothing, I move the rods to the side with the golf club and push the canvas bag but still no sound. I then look down and see that I have about a hundred yards of monofilment line running out from the door under my rear tire and back to the off ramp of the highway.
I pull the line and the paper bag that is inside the canvas bag comes alive with the rattlesnake sound, I pull the line again only to realize that the line had been hanging out of my door and when I made the sharp right turn in went upder my tire and started to peel off of the plastic spool in the paper bag that was inside the canvas carry all.

Now, I am standing in a busy intersection in Modesto with a 7 Iron in hand, both doors open on my car and people blowing their horns and yelling for me to get the hell out the way.
Just show's you what a little paranoia can do for ya....

[aNNieNsaLTIE]

george that was a great read!!! O MAN!! I think its time for a snake gun... don't they make .410 handguns just for snakes?

[Gator]

george that was a great read!!! O MAN!! I think its time for a snake gun... don't they make .410 handguns just for snakes?

Yes Annie - it's called a Taurus Judge!!

[Andy Giannini]

I was bank fishing with my fishing buddy, on my old ranch when I casually pointed out a snake swimming towards us.

He screamed like a girl, threw down his rod, and jumped the barbed wire fence behind us!



I had no idea he was afraid of snakes.

Another good one was rattlers up at Amador. They would give you a reward if you killed a rattlesnake up there some years ago. One club member spotted a snake on the ramp and everbody kinda freaked out. They were looking under Butch's van when some smartass threw a switch length twig inbetween another guy's legs and yelled, "SNAKE!" The victim jumped straight up and grabbed on to the rain gutter on the van with his fingernails trying to keep his legs off the ground.

[mark poulson]

I'm sure there's a Samuel Jackson movie in here somewhere.