Cottonmouth Question

stiab

stiab

Twelve Pointer
Contributor
pattersonj11 said:
It’s amazing how thick they can get.
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I spent a lot of time in the Great Dismal Swamp and surrounding areas in the 1970's, our standard reference for the really fat ones was..."big around as a Pepsi bottle", and many in fact were. Of course the bottle we were referring to back then was the tall glass bottle with the vertical swirls on it.
 
pattersonj11

pattersonj11

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
Biggest one I ever saw was in SC right above Santee. A guy was bush hogging at the hunting club and hit one. Didn’t cut it up....not a scratch to be found. He loaded it on the machine when done and rode it back to the club house.

I finally understood what big as a forearm meant when talking about snakes. One of the guys down there grabbed the head and squeezed some way to make the mouth open up. He put a knife blade on the fangs and then began to rub somewhere on the head. As he did that, you could see the venom come out and drip down the blade. Neat and unnerving.
 
MJ74

MJ74

Old Mossy Horns
Unfortunately I have seen way to many. I have seen them in all months of the year.

Not the biggest but one of the better pics of a local to the farm I hunt on...lol
4270ee6141e42993c0b3a46ed0e90c7e.jpg


Sent from my LG-US996 using Tapatalk
 
wolfman

wolfman

Old Mossy Horns
MJ74 said:
Unfortunately I have seen way to many. I have seen them in all months of the year.
I'm going to have to dislike this post
Not the biggest but one of the better pics of a local to the farm I hunt on...lol
4270ee6141e42993c0b3a46ed0e90c7e.jpg


Sent from my LG-US996 using Tapatalk
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I'm going to have to dislike this post.
 

old school

Six Pointer
All the rattlers I have seen swimming have their rattles sticking straight up out of the water. Even the ones crossing a grassy road after a heavy dew have their rattles straight up. Seen a few, maybe just not quite enough.
 

JohnBoat

Banned
My experience with cotton mouths is they are not really afraid of people. Have seen one swim right up to a fish cleaning table to check things out as someone was cleaning fish on it not 2 fee away. Also had one swim right up to check out a dead shad when I was on the bank about 5 feet away. I was clearly visible and making noise. It didn't care. They will not run from you as others mentioned. Also knew a guy who would flounder gig by walking the shallows during summer on the Pungo river. He would regularly have to gig cotton mouths and throw them in the marsh because they would swim out to him either because of the lights or his catch.
 
wncdeerhunter

wncdeerhunter

Old Mossy Horns
ellwoodjake said:
Years ago my dad killed a coupla cottonmouths from an old gravel pit slough in Haywood county and had them verified. Not sure how they got there, but I've never seen another one since
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I’ve heard a lot of folks tell of moccasins in WNC - but never seen one that wasn’t a water snake. How were they verified?

We just don’t have cotton mouths up here
 
wturkey01

wturkey01

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
wncdeerhunter said:
I’ve heard a lot of folks tell of moccasins in WNC - but never seen one that wasn’t a water snake. How were they verified?

We just don’t have cotton mouths up here
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We had some summer students doing trail work who claimed to have killed a cottonmouth.........turned out to be a rattler which had lost its hardware!
:rolleyes:
 
stiab

stiab

Twelve Pointer
Contributor
JohnBoat said:
My experience with cotton mouths is they are not really afraid of people.
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I agree 100%.

Years ago a friend and I were fishing from a jon boat in Bennets Creek, which flows into the Chowan River, and has plenty of cotton mouths. One started following our boat, and would stop every time we did about 30 feet away. After a while this grew old and Harry and I decided to put an end to it. We each had J frame revolvers (5 shots), and on a signal both emptied our guns at the floating snake, not knowing for sure if we would kill it, but certainly scare it away. The 10 shots happened quickly, with geysers spouting up and the surrounding water beaten into a froth, Harry and I laughing all the while. When the water surface calmed down, there sat the snake completely unfazed and unimpressed.

So I fired up the 6hp Evinrude and motored on down the creek at a pace faster than the snake could match. But he had won.
 
woodmoose

woodmoose

Administrator
Staff member
Contributor
stiab said:
I agree 100%.

Years ago a friend and I were fishing from a jon boat in Bennets Creek, which flows into the Chowan River, and has plenty of cotton mouths. One started following our boat, and would stop every time we did about 30 feet away. After a while this grew old and Harry and I decided to put an end to it. We each had J frame revolvers (5 shots), and on a signal both emptied our guns at the floating snake, not knowing for sure if we would kill it, but certainly scare it away. The 10 shots happened quickly, with geysers spouting up and the surrounding water beaten into a froth, Harry and I laughing all the while. When the water surface calmed down, there sat the snake completely unfazed and unimpressed.

So I fired up the 6hp Evinrude and motored on down the creek at a pace faster than the snake could match. But he had won.
Click to expand...


lesson learned,,,,,,target practice
 
stiab

stiab

Twelve Pointer
Contributor
^^^^^^^^^That would be a tough comparison to make in a hurry, unless it was already dead.
 
Bailey Boat

Bailey Boat

Twelve Pointer
I gotta be honest here fella's, I'm too big of a chicken sht to get close enough to see bars on it's lower jaw even if it is dead......
 
nccatfisher

nccatfisher

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
stiab said:
^^^^^^^^^That would be a tough comparison to make in a hurry, unless it was already dead.
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Well I can usually tell otherwise but given the pissy attitude of BWS if I kill one mistaking them for a cottonmouth I don't loose one bit of sleep over it. I seldom coon hunt in the summer now except around corn fields but for years I hunted just as much in the summer as I did in the winter. With the booming beaver populations the last 20 years here most of my time was in wet swampy areas and if I had a quarter for every BWS that scared the :donk:donk:donk:donk out of me taking a swipe at me in grass or debris around these swamps and beaver ponds I would care less about waiting on my retirement check every month. LOL I try not to hunt where cottonmouths are real active but dang if I didn't run up on one Feb of '18 and March of this year and it was pretty cold in Scotland co.

Of course we don't have cottonmouths here but you never get a good look at them usually when they take a swipe at you and the first thing you think of is copperhead, especially when you have been bitten by one so they aren't real high on my list of friends. Once I would see what they were I would usually antagonize them a little and I will say they aren't short on balls when they get big. They usually will give you hell to they get enough of you then they will haul ass.
 
stiab

stiab

Twelve Pointer
Contributor
I think they are as common on Hatteras Island as anywhere, which is where I took this pic. That is also where I killed one with a boat paddle that ate my fishing lure (long story), but it was not the one below. This is a good view that shows what they look like up close...

414247666.jpg
 

ellwoodjake

Twelve Pointer
wncdeerhunter said:
I’ve heard a lot of folks tell of moccasins in WNC - but never seen one that wasn’t a water snake. How were they verified?

We just don’t have cotton mouths up here
Click to expand...
Not sure of the dude's name or title, My dad retired from the NPS, and this was a uniformed employ he knew from work. I was probably about 10 at the time, and I remember him telling us that they weren't native, but if we killed another one to be sure to call him. Me and my brother killed a lot of snakes that summer in the sloughs, but could never find a fang. His theory was that someone turned them loose; much like an "alligator" call he once took
 
Rescue44

Rescue44

Old Mossy Horns
"was pretty cold in Scotland co."

Where I live. December 18, 42 degrees. All but stepped on a button tail timber rattlesnake.

Right next to Woodmoose's place in late December. My cousin used 2 bird dogs to drive deer. German shorthair jumped a log, turned and pointed. My cousin was about to step over the log where the dog pointed. Timber rattlesnake about 3.5 feet long. Like many places, you need to be aware snakes can be around any time of the year.
 
Part-time hunter

Part-time hunter

Ten Pointer
A few years ago there was a guy I think his last name was Sugg, or Suggs who was called the Snake Man at the Dixie Deer Classic. He had specimens of cotton mouths, copperheads and rattlers that he said he had just recently caught to let us know that these weren't pets and they were not defanged. He put them on the floor at his feet and they all just tried to get away from him. None of them were aggressive in any way. There was also another guy giving a report on a study of Pine Snakes in NC and he had a really nice 5 footer that he brought around to the crowd to get a closer look. It was a beautiful white and black striped one and since my buddy Dan and I were on the front row I asked if I could hold it which I did. Now Dan has been an avid hunter since he was old enough to walk but when I turned to see if he wanted to hold it I thought he was going to climb over his seat trying to get away. Since he and I have been hunting buddies for nearly 20 years now I have at least convinced him not to kill every reptile he comes across.
 
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