I love snakes and sharks

ColoCowboy said:
I am an avid scuba diver with more than 1,000 recreational and technical dives and, as part of my master retirement plan, I work part-time as a diving instructor. Needless to say, I have had more than my fair share of shark encounters - most are planned, a few were quite unexpected.

One of the unexpected encounters occurred last October at Chuuk Island, Micronesia (Truk Lagoon). Chuuk or Truk is widely regarded as one of the best wreck diving locations in the world. On one of the deeper, more complex dives, I literally came face-to-face with a nurse shark. While the nurse shark is one of the more docile sharks, it nevertheless was a riveting moment. We were in a fairly narrow passage way and, other than our handheld lights, it was pitch black. I rounded a corner and came within inches of bumping the sharks snout with my mask. Although it was a benign encounter, my wetsuit needed a thorough disinfecting once I returned to the dive boat.

Now, has that dampened my enthusiasm for diving? Absolutely not!
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That is pretty close to my diving resume as well. I specialize in deep and cave diving but don't care to do technical dives too often, way too much work and stress. I also teach Scuba a couple times a year.

My nurse shark story:

I have seen hundreds but one stands out. In 2004, I was a divemaster working on a boat in the VI's and when I say working, was a vacation but got to dive for free as long as I watched the group.

We were doing a drift dive, I was lead, and I spotted a nice sized nurse in a crevice. I thought it would be cool to show the beginners something(and to impress those two hot Canadian girls), so I gathered the group and had them swim back upstream a few feet and to sit on the bottom.

I went in under the rocks/coral and grabbed that sucker by the tail and tried pulling him out. He would not budge and after 30 secs of trying, he shot out right at my face. I saw that grimacing smile which was way to close for my liking. Needless to say, I never tried that again :D
 
Trouty said:
What a gorgeous, majestic creature.

I would free-dive with one in a second. But I'm not all there, Colo, brother :)

See any Tigers, Great Hammers?

It's my understanding that the hardest "man-eater" to spot in the wild is the Oceanic White Tip, due to them being open sea fish. They congregate at deep waters.
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Yes to both tiger sharks and hammerhead. Schooling hammerheads is a pretty special event.
 
Corso said:
Had many snake encounters. If you farm, it's an inevitability. Had 3 foot snakes coil around my foot when I was 3,4 and 5- picking berries and veggies. No worry.
Never worried. Never bitten.

So... Sorry bud, wish I could add more to this thread.
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Ha, I used to have to go with mom to pick blackberry's cuz' she was scared of snakes and would wash out those gallon paint cans I used to have to paint the long wooden workshop every summer vacation,,, anyway there was a medium sized black snake wrapped up around a blackberry vine and my mom
Almost was gonna 'pick' his head till it flicked it's tounge,,,lol, the scream and mad dash away would've rivaled High School track records,,, that was pretty hilarious:lmao::lmao2::lmao:
 
Melonfeud said:
Ha, I used to have to go with mom to pick blackberry's cuz' she was scared of snakes and would wash out those gallon paint cans I used to have to paint the long wooden workshop every summer vacation,,, anyway there was a medium sized black snake wrapped up around a blackberry vine and my mom
Almost was gonna 'pick' his head till it flicked it's tounge,,,lol, the scream and mad dash away would've rivaled High School track records,,, that was pretty hilarious:lmao::lmao2::lmao:
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That was probably a moccasin. What state was this, Mel?
 
When I was about 7 yrs old, my dad had gotten bit by a Moccasin. I got home with my mom and my dad was sitting on the couch with his leg up and bandaged and told me he had gone fishing and got bit. He showed me the bite marks, right above the ankle, but didn't tell me many details. It wasn't until I was older, late teens, that I thought about it and asked him. We went to Kruez Market for some BBQ, when he told me what happened.

He had gone fishing at our family's river house on the Guadalupe, it's at a part of the river called the Chutes. The river splits and one side narrows and is fairly swift, the "Chutes" side and the other side has a small 3' dam which is a great place for fishing and swimming. He waded to some rocks just below the small dam, there was some rocks and limbs washed up where he was standing. This kid comes along and is waving a stringer of perch along the bank and yelling to my dad asking if he wanted to buy them. My dad says no, but the kid won't stop pestering him and as he was moving along the brush and rocks and trying to shoo the kid away, that's when he felt a sharp pain in his leg. He looks down and sees the moccasin momentarily hanging by the fangs in his leg, before it lets go and disappears in the river.

There are a couple houses close by and he yells to the kid that he just got bit and to go run to one of the houses and have them call the hospital and notify them he was on the way after being bit, luckily the hospital isn't too far. The kid refuses to go, he says he won't do it until my dad buys his perch! o_O After some yelling, my dad finally agrees to buy the perch and the kid runs off to the nearest house. My dad wades out and limps up the bank and makes it to his car and peels out of the gravel driveway. My dad said he looked in his rearview mirror and that kid is chasing after him, waving that dang stringer of perch trying to get his money. :laugh:

I asked my dad why he didn't tell me the story back then and he said I looked upset by the snake bite and didn't want to worry me any more, so he just downplayed it. I told him that the snake bite worried me, but knew he'd be OK, the real thing that upset me was that he didn't take me fishing with him. :D My dad laughed and I told him, "You know how much I like going fishing.".
 
I used to have a 83 y.o. hunting buddy ( we'd drink two beers a day no more and never no less, sometimes that first beer was at 0430 going down the road lol)
We'd got into a big covey of gamble quail late January/ early February and were knocking them down, they stayed bunched up in flight and would watch where they'd light so we were gonna limit out at 15 birds each pretty quick, so I'm blowing off to Paul about how the next rattle snake I come across I'm gonna eat cuz I'd heard they weren't bad(he'd kill them and porcupines because he didn't want his dog to get into them the next time they went out) so this covey broke over a big hill as it's about the FORTH time we'd kicked'em up and banged them down, so I crest the the highest steepest part of the hill and the wind was kinda whistling and my ears were kinda dull ringing from shooting a bunch (this steep dropping slope was facing southern sun exposure and was kinda like a scree slope with a bunch of small flat rocks and I'd turn my head and it would sound like there was a rattle snake in my back pocket ,I'd turn my head to the left and could only hear wind, so I call over to Paul
" hey,Paul! I think I've got a rattle snake behind me, and I can't see him and don't want to move",,, that old crusty bastid blew on his whistle to call his dog to get her away and said"yer' on yer' own kid,,,come on sue!"(no ****, that's what he said,,, thanks a ****ing pantload,pal)
So this thing behind me is warmed up and really buzzing those 14 rattle buttons,,,so I just did a standing free jumped like a kangaroo down the slope and turned around and this sucker was all coiled up in classic strike pose with like a foot sticking up from the coil ,my shotgun blast took a good foot off its length from the head down and it was still 5+ foot long and almost forearm thick,,,whew, well I'd just been running my mouth about eating one and by golly the good lord put it to me,,, I stuffed it in my game vest and caught up to Paul and that headless snake came back to life and started slithering right up my spine ( I'd prolly walked 400-500 yards with just dead birds/ snake) man alive, I jumped,squalled and damn near crapped my pants the first time that dead snake creeped up between my shoulder blades:lmao::lmao2::lmao:

( that was one of the old timers you don't come across much anymore, prolly cuz' of that rough terrain as cows wouldn't even hang out in ito_O)
 
Roadtrip635 said:
When I was about 7 yrs old, my dad had gotten bit by a Moccasin. I got home with my mom and my dad was sitting on the couch with his leg up and bandaged and told me he had gone fishing and got bit. He showed me the bite marks, right above the ankle, but didn't tell me many details. It wasn't until I was older, late teens, that I thought about it and asked him. We went to Kruez Market for some BBQ, when he told me what happened.

He had gone fishing at our family's river house on the Guadalupe, it's at a part of the river called the Chutes. The river splits and one side narrows and is fairly swift, the "Chutes" side and the other side has a small 3' dam which is a great place for fishing and swimming. He waded to some rocks just below the small dam, there was some rocks and limbs washed up where he was standing. This kid comes along and is waving a stringer of perch along the bank and yelling to my dad asking if he wanted to buy them. My dad says no, but the kid won't stop pestering him and as he was moving along the brush and rocks and trying to shoo the kid away, that's when he felt a sharp pain in his leg. He looks down and sees the moccasin momentarily hanging by the fangs in his leg, before it lets go and disappears in the river.

There are a couple houses close by and he yells to the kid that he just got bit and to go run to one of the houses and have them call the hospital and notify them he was on the way after being bit, luckily the hospital isn't too far. The kid refuses to go, he says he won't do it until my dad buys his perch! o_O After some yelling, my dad finally agrees to buy the perch and the kid runs off to the nearest house. My dad wades out and limps up the bank and makes it to his car and peels out of the gravel driveway. My dad said he looked in his rearview mirror and that kid is chasing after him, waving that dang stringer of perch trying to get his money. :laugh:

I asked my dad why he didn't tell me the story back then and he said I looked upset by the snake bite and didn't want to worry me any more, so he just downplayed it. I told him that the snake bite worried me, but knew he'd be OK, the real thing that upset me was that he didn't take me fishing with him. :D My dad laughed and I told him, "You know how much I like going fishing.".
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Wow!!!!!!!

That kid was a daggon hustler, wasn't he!! Lol :)
 
Melonfeud said:
I used to have a 83 y.o. hunting buddy ( we'd drink two beers a day no more and never no less, sometimes that first beer was at 0430 going down the road lol)
We'd got into a big covey of gamble quail late January/ early February and were knocking them down, they stayed bunched up in flight and would watch where they'd light so we were gonna limit out at 15 birds each pretty quick, so I'm blowing off to Paul about how the next rattle snake I come across I'm gonna eat cuz I'd heard they weren't bad(he'd kill them and porcupines because he didn't want his dog to get into them the next time they went out) so this covey broke over a big hill as it's about the FORTH time we'd kicked'em up and banged them down, so I crest the the highest steepest part of the hill and the wind was kinda whistling and my ears were kinda dull ringing from shooting a bunch (this steep dropping slope was facing southern sun exposure and was kinda like a scree slope with a bunch of small flat rocks and I'd turn my head and it would sound like there was a rattle snake in my back pocket ,I'd turn my head to the left and could only hear wind, so I call over to Paul
" hey,Paul! I think I've got a rattle snake behind me, and I can't see him and don't want to move",,, that old crusty bastid blew on his whistle to call his dog to get her away and said"yer' on yer' own kid,,,come on sue!"(no ****, that's what he said,,, thanks a ****ing pantload,pal)
So this thing behind me is warmed up and really buzzing those 14 rattle buttons,,,so I just did a standing free jumped like a kangaroo down the slope and turned around and this sucker was all coiled up in classic strike pose with like a foot sticking up from the coil ,my shotgun blast took a good foot off its length from the head down and it was still 5+ foot long and almost forearm thick,,,whew, well I'd just been running my mouth about eating one and by golly the good lord put it to me,,, I stuffed it in my game vest and caught up to Paul and that headless snake came back to life and started slithering right up my spine ( I'd prolly walked 400-500 yards with just dead birds/ snake) man alive, I jumped,squalled and damn near crapped my pants the first time that dead snake creeped up between my shoulder blades:lmao::lmao2::lmao:

( that was one of the old timers you don't come across much anymore, prolly cuz' of that rough terrain as cows wouldn't even hang out in ito_O)
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Wow!!!!!!

Holy moly, Mel! Was this a Western Diamondback?
 
In the big house I had like a 8' wide double sliding glass door leading out to the pool patio and that boss stainless steel gas BBQ grill I had, one evening after dark the ol' lady was gonna get the yellow labs dinner bowl and screamed bloody murder cuz' there was a 5' western diamondback laying parallel with the glass doors sliding track ,,,boy, howdy we had a regular stooge fest of a snake killing operation underway in nothing flat, now I'd stopped and picked up a brand new flat shovel I'd found in the middle of the road ,it still had stickers on the shovel end,only problem was it had been run over and cracked the wood handle in the middle so I gave it to the wife for like potting soil and stuff cuz she really had a green thumb,,,anyway I got ahold of the shovel and the wife had the 'only ' flashlight and we find it coiled up in a flower bed buzzing, well I've developed a snake killing whack maneuver of facing them and coming down over the top of their head ,,whacking them in the back of their head with the swinging momentum of the arc dragging them towards you,,well obviously I'd not quite perfected it as it caught and pinned about the back third of that snakes body oh,,,ya! And that shovel handle snapped in two also ,,, so I've got this snake swimming in an s pattern and I've got my legs spread and as far back as I can and it's still like only a foot away from my feet and I tell her to get me another shovel and like the good wife that she was, she took off in a flash,,oh,ya! That was her with the flashlight that left in a flash,, man I was yelling and cussing and calling her every thing under the sun other than a child of god! LoL she came back all happy cuz she got me another full length shovel and that snake suffered the dual shovel wielding Melon feudian madman fate,,, Sheese! I went and bought her a 9 shot d.a. .22 revolver the next day to where she could kill her own damn snakes the next timeo_O

( that was back in my scotch whiskey drinking days,,,and ya! I'd been drinking,,, that gal still has that pistol also;))
 
Roadtrip635 said:
When I was about 7 yrs old, my dad had gotten bit by a Moccasin. I got home with my mom and my dad was sitting on the couch with his leg up and bandaged and told me he had gone fishing and got bit. He showed me the bite marks, right above the ankle, but didn't tell me many details. It wasn't until I was older, late teens, that I thought about it and asked him. We went to Kruez Market for some BBQ, when he told me what happened.

He had gone fishing at our family's river house on the Guadalupe, it's at a part of the river called the Chutes. The river splits and one side narrows and is fairly swift, the "Chutes" side and the other side has a small 3' dam which is a great place for fishing and swimming. He waded to some rocks just below the small dam, there was some rocks and limbs washed up where he was standing. This kid comes along and is waving a stringer of perch along the bank and yelling to my dad asking if he wanted to buy them. My dad says no, but the kid won't stop pestering him and as he was moving along the brush and rocks and trying to shoo the kid away, that's when he felt a sharp pain in his leg. He looks down and sees the moccasin momentarily hanging by the fangs in his leg, before it lets go and disappears in the river.

There are a couple houses close by and he yells to the kid that he just got bit and to go run to one of the houses and have them call the hospital and notify them he was on the way after being bit, luckily the hospital isn't too far. The kid refuses to go, he says he won't do it until my dad buys his perch! o_O After some yelling, my dad finally agrees to buy the perch and the kid runs off to the nearest house. My dad wades out and limps up the bank and makes it to his car and peels out of the gravel driveway. My dad said he looked in his rearview mirror and that kid is chasing after him, waving that dang stringer of perch trying to get his money. :laugh:

I asked my dad why he didn't tell me the story back then and he said I looked upset by the snake bite and didn't want to worry me any more, so he just downplayed it. I told him that the snake bite worried me, but knew he'd be OK, the real thing that upset me was that he didn't take me fishing with him. :D My dad laughed and I told him, "You know how much I like going fishing.".
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:lmao::lmao2::lmao:
The kid with the stringer of fish is Hilarious:lmao::lmao2:
 
Trouty said:
I love this vid.

Snake enthusiasts will love it. People scared of snakes, don't watch :)

My son started hitting me in the arm when I made him watch it (as we had recently ran into a Gopher snake at Griffith, and I told him how bad it could've been; sidenote, I tried to catch the Gopher snake and my son freaked out LOL)

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not gonna lie, I jumped when it attacked the screen...

edit: and just watched the end of the video, I don't care how much is costs, I would not have retrieved it.
 
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