09-18-2005, 12:32 PM
[cool][#0000ff]Good story. One of the great things about fishing is the chance to see wildlife. But, some wildlife is better to see than others.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Those big snappers DO have the potential for causing some damage. However, they are not nearly as common as they used to be. It is rare to see a big one anymore.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Depending on what part of the country you live in there can be other wildlife "encounters". I have had "up close and personal" meetings with otters, beavers, muskrats, deer, coyotes, foxes, javelinas, badgers, squirrels and skunks. Being quiet and in the water, many wild critters will not be spooked if you do not make fast motions or if you keep quiet.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The worst potential meetings are with poisonous snakes. Anyone tubing in areas where there are copperheads or water moccasins has a very real possibility of finding them either along the bank or out in the water with them. Not good. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]When I was tubing in the New Orleans area, I had to watch both for gators and for moccasins. Fortunately, most of my tubing was during the late fall and winter months, when reptiles were mostly inactive. However, I did see some early emerging snakes, in February and March, when they came out to catch some rays in the warm spring days.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Some of the scariest snakes are big rattlers. Many people do not know that rattlesnakes are good swimmers and will take to the water. Down south, those big eastern diamondbacks will crawl right up in a boat with anglers. I suppose they would also get friendly with tubers, but I have never heard of anyone dumb enough to share their fishing hole with one.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]When TubeBabe and I lived in Arizona, we had several close sightings of rattlers swimming in the waters we were fishing. One of our fishing lakes flooded some new area after the dam was raised, and it messed up the rattlers habitat. When they came out of their dens in the spring, they started to spread out and many of them found that their usual paths were flooded with the rising lake. So, they just swam across. Some of them even crawled up in the tops of flooded trees to rest. I tell ya, when you plan to fish for crappies around a sunken tree, and it rattles at you, you change your plans.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]TubeBabe is not a big fan of snakes...of any kind. Whenever there was any kind of snake in the water nearby she just about got up and ran across the top of the lake. Funny to me but not to her.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Those big snappers DO have the potential for causing some damage. However, they are not nearly as common as they used to be. It is rare to see a big one anymore.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Depending on what part of the country you live in there can be other wildlife "encounters". I have had "up close and personal" meetings with otters, beavers, muskrats, deer, coyotes, foxes, javelinas, badgers, squirrels and skunks. Being quiet and in the water, many wild critters will not be spooked if you do not make fast motions or if you keep quiet.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]The worst potential meetings are with poisonous snakes. Anyone tubing in areas where there are copperheads or water moccasins has a very real possibility of finding them either along the bank or out in the water with them. Not good. [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]When I was tubing in the New Orleans area, I had to watch both for gators and for moccasins. Fortunately, most of my tubing was during the late fall and winter months, when reptiles were mostly inactive. However, I did see some early emerging snakes, in February and March, when they came out to catch some rays in the warm spring days.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Some of the scariest snakes are big rattlers. Many people do not know that rattlesnakes are good swimmers and will take to the water. Down south, those big eastern diamondbacks will crawl right up in a boat with anglers. I suppose they would also get friendly with tubers, but I have never heard of anyone dumb enough to share their fishing hole with one.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]When TubeBabe and I lived in Arizona, we had several close sightings of rattlers swimming in the waters we were fishing. One of our fishing lakes flooded some new area after the dam was raised, and it messed up the rattlers habitat. When they came out of their dens in the spring, they started to spread out and many of them found that their usual paths were flooded with the rising lake. So, they just swam across. Some of them even crawled up in the tops of flooded trees to rest. I tell ya, when you plan to fish for crappies around a sunken tree, and it rattles at you, you change your plans.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]TubeBabe is not a big fan of snakes...of any kind. Whenever there was any kind of snake in the water nearby she just about got up and ran across the top of the lake. Funny to me but not to her.[/#0000ff]
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