Cottonmouth in Lexington, Ky.

possumal

possumal

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Here is a picture taken by my son, Vincent, at the Andover Golf Course in Lexington where he is assistant professional. It is the first cottonmouth I have actually seen a picture of here. I know they have them in Western Ky., but this is a new one for me. He is a big one too. Here is a picture:

 
That is a bad snake. I have some experience with them, they are not to be trifled with.
 
Ever see the show "snake salvation"? Church in KY that handles these during sermons... One of them recently died handling a snake...
 
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

Cottonmouths, like any pit viper, tend to be fat bodied & get more so as they get bigger. They're also not known for their generally pleasant dispositions...
 
Originally Posted By: Mr Potato HeadOnly had a couple documented in Indiana. Good time to have a garden hoe SHOTGUN handy. Slice and dice BLAST INTO SMALL PIECES.

Fixed it for ya...
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lots of them around here. You can smell em. Often they will lay in the middle of a cow trail and nail whatever gets close.
They will make a pups head swell up like a basketball. Got no use for em.
Kelly
 
Kelly, I have heard about copperheads smelling like cucumbers, but that's the first I have heard about cottonmouths. Do they put off a cucumber smell?
 
Any kind of warning is better than none. We used to see a lot of them down at John Kerr reservoir on the Virginia/N.C. border, especially in an area called the witch's ditch. I respected them enough that if I got hung up around those bushes, I sacrificed a lure or two.
 
One particular lake I fish is loaded with them. Once while bass fishing a buddy spotted an unusually large cottonmouth sunning on a log a good way off. We were in my boat and I was on the front deck running the trolling motor and working a large spinnerbait. My bud said, "I'll buy lunch if you can hit that cottonmouth with your bait - but it has to be perfect right in the head." The snake was a looong way off, a long way. I cranked the 3/4 ounce spinnerbait up and heaved it just as far as I could manage. Somehow that spinnerbait feathered down just perfectly and plunked that big old snake exactly on the noggin with an audible "thump" knocking the cottonmouth off the log as if it were struck by a snipers bullet. I doubt it killed it but I'd bet it had a headache. Without looking at my fishing partner I said, "I like steak." Probably couldn't do that again in a hundred cast!
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I had a good friend who was seriously phobic about snakes. One year, he & some others drew deer tags down on the Duck River.

In the morning, on the way in, they were coming up on a thicket & saw a snake slide into it. He made them hike the long way around the edge.

That evening on the way back, they came up on the other side of the thicket & he stopped, thinking about that snake. Everyone else was tired, they just wanted to get back out & told him "That damned snake is long gone, just go on through! We're not going around again!!!"

He took 3 steps & a quail flushed, hitting him in the chest. He just knew that snake had struck him in the heart & passed out cold
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My late-grandparents used to live next to a small creek.
Since part of the "yard" abutted [sp] the creek, Gramps would always mow right up to the very edge of the ditch.
I always feared for him, because the creek was known to occasionally have cottonmouths around it.

Fortunately, the old man never got bit.
But, more than one snake wound up getting a load of .410 #6 for it's trouble.
I can remember at least 2 others that I personally gave a dose of 12 gauge #4 to.
 
I was out target shooting on a field road along a ditch last week and walked up on a nest of cotton mouths...I handled things well. There were some really big ones but I'm guessing 20-30 in the swarm. That's a whole lotta bad in one 15 foot section of ditch.
 
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