South Holston Snake (s)

[GROUSEBUGGER]

Last Sunday I was on the South Holston tailwater looking for a sulphur hatch.   It was about 3:30 and little was happening as I was crossing from midstream toward the bank.  I was looking down  to pick my way over the slick rocks and saw the nice copperhead shown in the photos.   He was fully submerged and partially under a rock.  When I poked him with my wading stick he  extended himself  as shown.  Definitely alive, although perhaps not so well in the cold water. He was about 25 feet from the bank.    Last year I saw a smaller copperhead underwater in a different location and assumed he had been washed in on a high flow .  This spring there has not been much high water.  What are the snakes doing in the water?  Has anyone else seen this?  Any ideas as to an explanation?  By way of TR my total catch that afternoon was one 3 " rainbow--presumably wild.   
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[Al]

  Makes me think twice about reaching down to unhook my fly which has snagged in the rocks. I'm not afraid of snakes but I don't like them either.



You won't see me running around like an idiot trying to grab a snake. We made an exception with this one about 45 years ago - Heard some gunfire and thinking we were in a fire-fight ran to the sounds of the guns and found my troops had killed this large python. Helicopter pilot almost crapped his pants when we threw it on the floor of the chopper so we could bring it back to camp for dinner. Good eating

[Woolly Bugger]

Me thinks that is a Northern Water-snake, they can flatten their heads to look like the venomous copperhead, the dark banding on the back is wide on the back of the NWS, but narrow on the copperhead,

That's what I think

[Michael Toris]

Northern water snake. You got it woolly

[Onslow]

I've nearly shat upon myself on many occasion due to these scary looking effers.  I once fell forward on the Tar river and my reaching hand ended up in a pothole with one of these in it.  Thankfully the snake had a small fish in it's mouth.

[tomato can]

PIW, speaking of Franklin County when we used to seine cypress creek below Jackson's Pond we believed there was a water moccasin behind every cypress knee.  and we was back woods.  Hows that from some Franklin County bullish!t!  But back then, every snake was a water moccasin.   had them fall in the jon boat while frog gigging.  And I bet every dang one of em was a water snake but at the time it would not make you feel better.

[Native Fisher]

Northern Water snakes like that one have the wide part of the color band on the top of them.  Copperheads have the wide part of the band on the sides and narrow part on the top.

[Aka]

I had an encounter with one of them bad boys while fishing with my kids on the Oconaluftee. I thought it was a moccasin too. phg advised me that they are not found in that region and this is a doppelganger. I still don't care. If it goes the other way, we're good, otherwise they meet the judge.
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Is that a 410 pistol? If so that's new to me and badass.

[Michael Toris]

I had an encounter with one of them bad boys while fishing with my kids on the Oconaluftee. I thought it was a moccasin too. phg advised me that they are not found in that region and this is a doppelganger. I still don't care. If it goes the other way, we're good, otherwise they meet the judge.
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Is that a 410 pistol? If so that's new to me and badass.

Pistol that shoots either .410 shotgun shells or .45 bullets

[Dougfish]

If he goes underwater, it's a water snake. If he stays on top, he's a copperhead. And oh yeah, they swim.
And those water snakes are aggressive mofos. I was fishing along an edge of a stream and I felt a tap, tap, tap on my calf. He was striking my waders like he was going to take me down. You've never a large, old man jump like that before. Into the river. I'm pretty sure girly sounds come out of my throat.   

[bmadd]

Not saying something bad couldn't happen because there are definite cases where it has happened. But, most adult copperhead bites are dry. They don't reproduce venom very fast so they usually reserve that for dispatching their meals. Juvenile copperheads on the other hand apparently are more reckless with their venom and inject more frequently.

[Feather Chucker]

If he goes underwater, it's a water snake. If he stays on top, he's a copperhead. And oh yeah, they swim.
And those water snakes are aggressive mofos. I was fishing along an edge of a stream and I felt a tap, tap, tap on my calf. He was striking my waders like he was going to take me down. You've never a large, old man jump like that before. Into the river. I'm pretty sure girly sounds come out of my throat.

I had one bite my sandals while I was fishing on some rocks. Needless to say I no longer wear sandals while fishing.