It's a copperhead.
This reminds me of a story lol. Back in the mid 80s sometime when I was but a lad, a friend and I went to another friend's farm pond in Winston to go fishing. There was a canoe half in the water and half out of the water turned upside down. We decided to use it so we flipped it over, tossed out some wet pine straw and leaves and paddled out to the middle of the pond. I was in the back of the canoe sitting there with shorts and no shoes when my friend noticed I had a large copperhead coiled up and laying between my bare feet. I think I remember letting out an expletive or two but I didn't move my feet. I knew better. I started taking my fishing pole apart so I could distract and encourage him to move from between my feet where I could better position myself to flip him overboard. However, things did NOT go as planned. As soon as the snake moved forward (exactly where I wanted him to go), Johnny stood up and dove off the boat into the water. Do you know what happens when you are sitting in an aluminum canoe and someone on the other end jumps out? Yeah...it rolled over. I found myself now splashing around trying to figure out where the snake was so I wouldn't splash around on his pointy end. Then, I saw him swimming towards the other side of the pond. So I calmed down, swam for shore dragging the capsized canoe with me. My tackle box was recovered but it was open so anything that didn't float is probably still out there. Somehow, I never let go of my fishing pole though. Johnny is alive today ONLY because I allowed him to live past that day lol
This reminds me of a story lol. Back in the mid 80s sometime when I was but a lad, a friend and I went to another friend's farm pond in Winston to go fishing. There was a canoe half in the water and half out of the water turned upside down. We decided to use it so we flipped it over, tossed out some wet pine straw and leaves and paddled out to the middle of the pond. I was in the back of the canoe sitting there with shorts and no shoes when my friend noticed I had a large copperhead coiled up and laying between my bare feet. I think I remember letting out an expletive or two but I didn't move my feet. I knew better. I started taking my fishing pole apart so I could distract and encourage him to move from between my feet where I could better position myself to flip him overboard. However, things did NOT go as planned. As soon as the snake moved forward (exactly where I wanted him to go), Johnny stood up and dove off the boat into the water. Do you know what happens when you are sitting in an aluminum canoe and someone on the other end jumps out? Yeah...it rolled over. I found myself now splashing around trying to figure out where the snake was so I wouldn't splash around on his pointy end. Then, I saw him swimming towards the other side of the pond. So I calmed down, swam for shore dragging the capsized canoe with me. My tackle box was recovered but it was open so anything that didn't float is probably still out there. Somehow, I never let go of my fishing pole though. Johnny is alive today ONLY because I allowed him to live past that day lol
