[Capitaljerome]

About a month ago I almost stepped on a copperhead at Penny's Bend in Durham. He was the same color as the ground on the trail and my left foot stepped in front of the snake and my right foot passed over his head. Before that, I rarely saw snakes while bank fishing and I'll admit I had probably become a little too comfortable crawling through all types of vegetation and brush looking for fish. Now I see them about every time I go out. I sometimes have my sons (4 and 8 yrs old) with me and I've become a lot more cautious. At Lake Crabtree in Raleigh about two weeks ago, I saw a copperhead eat a sunfish. After that, I saw a snake wrapped around the cleat where you would untie one of the john boats and that same snake ate the minnow off my hook later in the afternoon. I saw one hiding under the dock as I returned my boat rental at Lake Johnson in Raleigh.
Since the copperhead incident maybe I'm just more aware of them and I'm sure they've always been around whether I see them or not, but this message is a reminder to be careful out there...especially if you have little ones. Happy fishing.

 

[jerry condrey]

Good advice! I bet though the snake you saw eating a sunfish was one of several varieties of water snakes, a couple which resemble copperheads. Copperheads are primarily rodent eaters.

 

[SnowCamp]

Northern banded water snakes are often confused with copper heads. Copperheads have much wider bands and much wider heads.

Sent from my Venue 8 3830 using Tapatalk

 

[Fish_Fiend]

Head shape is realy the best way to identify vipers.

Gene - Red》X《 - Asheboro

 

[catfish_hunter]

Head shape is realy the best way to identify vipers.

Gene - Red》X《 - Asheboro

Right after you knock them in the head...

 

[ChltBnks]

When I fish a sketchy area at night where I can't park close, I wear hip boots with the 'daily' prison armor wrapped around my legs with rubber bands. It is not exactly comfortable but I am just a dumb yank lacking in southern common sense. So I figure better safe than getting a post mortem trespassing ticket.

 

[roostertail24]

Catfish you wouldn't dare kill a snake would you??

 

[catfish_hunter]

no, but if a big stick happened to fall out of the tree right on the snakes head i woudln't mind too much.

I got hit on the boot by a cotton mouth during archery season last year walking into my stand... the were several times there was one laying in the trail with his mouth opened waiting on me.

 

[Capitaljerome]

The one that ate the sunfish could have been a water snake, but it kind of looked like a viper to me. This one was in the pine straw behind the bench and another fisherman threw a small bream to it. The snake swallowed it, which attracted a crowd of onlookers, and left. This one's head seemed bigger than the one that ate my minnow. I should have taken a picture, but I was too busy walking away.