re: Snake Stories: Too Close for Comfort Edition

I had one fall in a aluminum boat with me when I was younger,I bumped a low hanging limb and he fell in,I was beating at him with a paddle,he was coming at me and I jumped in the water.He crawls over the back of the boat into the water,I don’t remember getting back in the boat but next thing I know I was in it.
A friend of mine used to carry a .22 in his boat to shoot snakes.A water moccasin fell in his boat and he shot 14 holes in his boat.He cranked his motor real fast and made it to the bank.He had to whittle 14 sticks to plug all the holes and the bale the water out of the boat.
A guy my dad knew shot a snake that fell in his boat with a .410,his boat sank and he had to hang on a cypress tree all night.He got rescued the next day.
I saw a huge congregation of water moccasins at Saline one time.As you come from Youngblood’s Landing on the left there is a bluff.There was 150-200 water moccasins on logs,hanging on limbs,etc.I supposed it was mating season,it made my skin crawl.
When I first started fishing Saline in the 80’s there were more snakes than I’ve ever seeen,lots of those diamond back water snakes.The state started stocking it with alligators and after a few years I would rarely see a snake.