During the first couple weeks following the Sabine River Flood of record in March '16, I killed 13 water moccasins and 2 copper heads ranging from 12-26 inches. I dont typically kill a snake unless it's around the house, but in these cases, they were all around where we were living at the time of the flood. A water snake would typically get a pass, but in the pond, they tend to prey on my few bullfrogs, so they have to go.
FYI...a coral snake doesnt have fangs like a pit viper, and a very small mouth. They secrete venom as they chew. They have to get you either on the finger/toe or on the webbing between them. A neighbor kid many years ago was trying to stupidly catch crawfish by putting his finger down a stack and came out with a coral latched on his finger. Ended up losing two of them. We see a lot of king snakes here that look like corals but you have to remember the old adage....red touches black,friend of Jack (king/corn snake), red touches yellow, kill a fellow (coral snake).
On another note, we got 2.5 inches of rain since last night. That puts my YTD total to 12 inches even. The pond is overflowing into the drain pipe. My color was starting to turn kind of greenish brown, which I think indicates my plankton bloom was starting to die off a bit. Its back to being deep olive green now. Took a few readings to see what all this fresh water did. Surface temp is 70*f (air temp 75), couldn't get a bottom temp because I broke my pool thermometer when I tossed it out. PH measures 7.0. My Alk is still pretty low (20ppm) and hardness is immeasurable again.
Looks like I'm going after another 500# of Ag Lime soon. Shouldn't affect anything spawn wise...should it?
Oh yeah....no snakes!!
.10 surface acre pond, 10.5 foot deep. SW LA. The epitome of a mutt pond. BG, LMB, GSF, RES, BH, Warmouth, Longear Sunfish, Gambusia,Mud Minnows, Crappie, and now shiners!!...I subscribe!!
