Bet none of you have ever seen this.

6/13/2021
Vacation in Sandbridge VA. which is right down the road from Virginia Beach. Our daughter rented a 7 bedroom house and we, me and wife, were invited to come along for the week. There were 19 of us with all the kids, grandkids and great grandkids. She wanted a house on the bay since they had just driven up from the previous week in Corolla, OBX. Nice and quiet.

The place had a dock so we all could fish if we didn't want to walk to the beach. So far so good. Caught a couple of catfish and a few bass the first day. Wasn't trying to make it into a tournament so the fishing was kinda "whatever", if they bite good, if they don't so what.

The first day she had to call the management company for the rental and they sent a plumber to check one of the sink drains. While he is there he says,

"You might want to keep people off those rocks next to that dock. There are snakes in there."

I didn't even ask what type. I figured, sure, big deal.

The second evening while fishing off the dock I saw a smaller cat up against the wood wall where the stones meet. Lots of commotion so I figured it was two cats chasing the same small shad or something.

WRONG!



I knew right away what it was.
I saw 3 or 4 different ones while we were there. They were out sunning on the rocks. I wanted to go to the Walmart and buy a pellet rifle, if you came up behind them from the grass side they never moved, so I could put the muzzle an inch from the head and "dispatch" the thing. My daughter didn't want the little ones seeing this so I had to forget that. Whenever someone wanted to take out the kayaks or paddle boards they did it from the dock and not from the rocks.

Damn, I hate snakes.

 

Flyersarebest,

I'm glad you didn't dispatch that water snake. Although when a young lad, those things would always bite me. Couldn't get them to become tame.

I've always liked snakes and had many as pets.

One day (about a decade ago) I saw something that didn't look like a mouse in one of those glue traps in the cellar. I had a devil of a time getting them freed. Thankfully, WD-40 worked and I set them free. A couple of young Eastern Ringnecks.

​

I never figured out how they got inside but later I had to free this baby black snake.

​

Somewhere I have a picture of shooters on the line at one of the clubs I belonged to, with a blurred tree near the camera. Then I focused on the tree where a black snake was resting in a hole.

Yep, I was the snakeman when I was young.

HB

 

Looked to me as if it was a Cottonmouth/Water moccasin.

 

The only way I like snakes are battered and deep fried, lots of Tabasco ... WPT ... (YAC) ...

 

Some cotton mouths have similar color and markings. I just can't make out if your snake has the traditional venomous head.

wpt, you're hurt'n this old snake lover.

 

I don't care much for snakes either. As a kid we used to shoot water snakes with our air rifles as they swam by us fishing or we tried to. We weren't overly successful though we got the odd one. We had more fun tossing a bobber ahead of and past them then when they crossed over the line setting the hook as hard as we could and sending them flying through the air...LOL
This rattler may not have survived, even though they are protected had it been me that discovered it upon opening the trap house...this was at the Medicine Hat Gun .club in Medicine Hat, Alberta this past week.

 

Looks like the same snakes all over the place in the islands of Lake Erie.

 

Oh Geeezzzz, it's going to take a while to get THAT picture out of my brain. LOL

 

HB, now that you say that and after looking at numerous pictures, including the one Columbus posted, I suppose the snake at the dock was a "water snake" that has similar markings.

 

Mike Rowe (Dirty Jobs) did segment on the Lake Erie water snake - he got bit a lot - hilarious. Early in the spring, they're everywhere on the rocks. Check out this gal.

Mod Edit:

Columbus was kind enough to post a link to a youtube vid showing this women but I deleted it since we can't post links on our site even though they are entertaining or informative.

As I said the other times I had to delete a link, if we let the goods ones on like this one then we are opened to the bad ones.

f someone wants to see that vid I would suggest the go on You Tube and type in women gets bit by water snake. It will probably pop up

Thanks