Ric,

you may reconsider letting non venomous snakes bite you. while attending UGA I was in a lab and one of the graduate TA's fancied himself a snake handler. He caught a banded water snake for the class and was bitten in the process. within 24 hours he developed a terrible fever and was very sick, he had to be admitted into the hospital for a few days. he got some type of bacterial infection from the snakes mouth.

Lakedoc,

you are right those water snakes can be bold sometimes but I have never had one get in the boat. sometimes when we are shocking they pop out of a dock or log. they get seriously mad when you shock them with about 400 volts pulling 4 amps. If they get too close to the boat the electricity will wad them up like an old extension cord. a few bumps of juice and they get the point and go away. I have never seen one die from shocking it, I have seen many take advantage of the stunned fish and get a quick meal.

I guess I dont get too worked up about the snakes. The only one that makes me nervous are the rattlers. I think the Eastern diamondback are the largest and most poisionous in N. America. (except for the coral) I once saw one while driving to the hunting camp. I thought it was a retread that was thrown off a big truck. it was laying across the road and when I passed it its head was on the white line and its tail touched the yellow line in the middle of the road. and it was not laying straight, there was a slight S shape so that snake was longer than 8 feet. Its thickness was more comparable to my upper leg than to my arm.

Once you have delt with old EDB everything else seems kind of wimpy. I've got a good pic. I'll try and post it