slingFish Fish Tales Snake

Aug 5, 2007
Man catches fish . . . and snake.

No, really. Here's the story:

My buddy and I went out for a little afternoon fishing, nothing hard-core. We took some night crawlers, a few lures, and our light fishing rods, just going for sunfish and bass if lucky. We were fishing from the platform ,visible in one of the photos, and caught several small sunfish over the couse of an hour. A small group of rocks is located at the base of the platform and the few small fish we caught inevitably splashed a bit and bumped into the rocks as they were being reeled in. So, my buddy is reeling one of the sunfish when almost from nowhere a snake emerged from the rocks and nailed the fish just as it was passing the rocks. It had a good bite on the side of the fish and did NOT want to let go. Most of the snake's body was wrapped in the rocks and while my buddy was trying to pull the fish in, the snake was tugging hard in the opposite direction. This went on for several minutes and was so noticeable that another fisherman about 40 yards away asked what we were doing. "Oh nothing, just landing a ravenous, thrashing reptile," as if it were business as usual. This tug-of-war lasted for several minutes until the snake got tired and let go . . . of the rocks, not the fish. There was so much tension on the line at that moment that the snake ejected almost as if being fired from a slingshot. I'm sure you know what comes next, right? Fisherman gets extreme live-action closeup of hunger-crazed reptile, panic, recovery. The snake didn't quite make it onto the platform which was probably best for the snake, and for us. Instead it was suspended a few feet above the water, writhing like mad. It really wanted that fish. After a few minutes of wriggling it dropped back into the water leaving the fish and two slack-jawed fishermen behind. Believe it or not, that ordeal did not deter the snake at all. It stayed around the rocks searcing for its lost dinner for about 20 minutes. My buddy and I fished on until sunset and went home with no injury of course, except perhaps to ego. I'm sure the snake did likewise. Touche'.

Check out the photo gallery below.