COTTON MOUTH / St Marks

[wskybiz]

I wanted to share what my young boys and I encountered yesterday. My 13 year-olds baseball practice ran a little late yesterday afternoon. The original plan was to get out to St Marks by about 3 and do some fishing for a few hours. Well 3 turned into 5 before we got there but my 10 year old was hell-bent on getting lines in the water. We pushed past the fort towards the lighthouse. Fog got so bad that we did not even make it to the lighthouse but decided to fish some of the creek mouths. Getting rods set for the boys one of them says "look there's a big dead fish floating over there". When I looked over I noticed something odd and moving. Ended up being a large 4-5 foot and very fat cottonmouth that was swimming our way. Once it got to about 15 ft from the boat I throttled a few hundred yards away and got to fishing. Within about 5 minutes the snake had made its way out to us again. That thing was being aggressive, as it got closer it started bringing its head up out of the water. Every time we'd move one direction or another it would keep coming at us Keep in mind we were in a 26 foot center console with high gunnels yet that joker was all about trying to get at us. It was a unique experience I've never encountered before on the river but it does trouble me as we frequently (after going offshore on those hot summer days) we will take a dip in that nice cool refreshing area of the river. If I was in a Jon Boat, canoe or kayak it would have been a fairly big concern so I wanted to make sure those smaller vessels are aware. All of us have seen plenty of Gators in those waters it's a first to see something like this that we need to be cautious of out there. Wonder if others have had any similar type of experiences. Tight lines everyone

[silverking]

Have had one get fairly close to the kayak. Not the most pleasant situation, although I had the paddle at the ready.

In your case, a Ruger .22 would have taken care of that problem.

You see all kinds of critters out there. Encountered a 7-foot bull shark in three feet yesterday. Earliest I've ever seen one, although there were a lot of stingrays and cow nose rays in the area. Also saw a raft of 1K+ ducks get up. Impressive sight.

[BloodyChamp]

Most important question...did you catch any fish and did you see any mullet

Somebody showed me a picture of either the biggest or the 2nd biggest Cottonmouth (I saw 1 on the Aucilla myself in the same range...probably not going to hold them together and measure them to be sure) that I've ever seen on the St Marks. Meanwhile my biggest scare as far as getting to close, size aside, was on the St Marks.

[bbb]

We launch at the fort a couple months ago on a cold Dec morning. We were cast netting mud minnows in the basin, near where the ramp drops off. Saw something dark and when we got over top of it, low and behold a good 9-10' alligator laying on the end of the ramp. I had just launched the boat there and another guy had been standing about knee deep cast netting earlier.

You never know what lurks below.

[relicshunter]

They can sure be aggressive, but there is a possibility that it was seeing your boat as a place to get out of the water. Were you out in the water a ways? Might have been looking for land, may have been being just snotty, can't be sure.

[STMU]

I had one jump in my small jon boat many years ago in NC. We were in the Albemarle Sound and had to be 1 mile from shore. I guess it got lost, was tired and needed a place to rest. I was one the bow casting and not looking, but luckily my uncle saw it as it hopped up the gunnel and landed on the floor.

Calamity ensued as we both jumped up on the seats and the 12' narrow jon boat started rocking like crazy! Surprised we didn't fall over and wished I had a camera rolling during that moment. Ultimately, it picked a bad spot! Quick whack with the paddle solved that problem, but sure was surprised to see it come in the boat that far from shore.

[wskybiz]

No fish that afternoon but the conditions were not favorable to keep trying. We were pulled up about 20 yards from shore at first. He was definitely much closer to land. He was 100+ yards from shore by the time he got real close. I went out again yesterday and saw numerous people wading out in the same grass-type areas. For those who do that be careful

[Pirate]

We caught a Rattlesnake behind Marsh Island ( SGI) crossing to the Island a few years ago. Don't believe I have waded in marsh grass since.

[JeffB]

Saw a big rattlesnake crossing the Chattahoochee river on day. The river's pretty wide where I was and the channel is almost in the middle of the river there. It swam right up to my boat like it was going to try and get in and just stayed with me for awhile until I finally couldn't stand it any longer and I sped up and moved on down the river.

[BloodyChamp]

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