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Embarrassing Question: Can an alligator climb aboard a pontoon boat while the boat is out on the wat

Speaking of snakes! I had this guy drop out of my transom at my feet while I was raising the motor. (This would have been the first episode prior to me leaving on the infamous LOTO trip.)


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I would lose my mind if I saw that anywhere near my boat or anything for that matter. I hate snakes  :wacko:
 
What kind of snake it that, Jared?  I'm just as ignorant about snakes as I am about alligators.
 
Hey Eagle 1. Take a look at LAKE kEOWE In North West SC. Great Fishing, Great Swimming  A lot of Islands to beach the Benny and swim in the warm  (80 ) clear water. "NO GATORS" We also have the least expensive gas in the country. By the way I've had Gator tail deep fried and broiled. Tasted like chick--(no) but it was good
 
That is an impressive lake, Highpond.  18,500 acres with 300 miles of shoreline and only 35 miles from Greenville (so I read on Wikipedia).  It looks fantastic.  And the pictures of Lake Keowee I've just looked at moments ago on Google Images are absolutely beautiful.  If I were buying a trailer for my pontoon boat I'm sure I would love to take it to Lake Keowee just for the experience of boating there.   Congratulations on retiring to such a wonderful lake.
 
I've never met your wife Dan but I was referring to THEIR mating season, not sure when your 3 day window is... Just kidding!!! I had to!!!!
 
I called it a helicopter snake. I picked it up by the tail and whipped it against a tree about 10 yards away. Not sure of the official name but I think it resembles an eastern water moccasin. (Not the shoe)
 
The snake looks like a common banded water snake, and he eats small fish, frogs and salamanders. Harmless, though they will strike if cornered, but they are not poisionous. As a teenager I caught rattlesnakes and water moccasins and sold them to Ross Allen's Reptile Institute at Silver Springs, 2 miles from my home. They milked them and sold the venum to drug companies for processing. Minimum wage was 1.00/hr then, and I could make 25.00/hr on a fair to good day of collecting snakes. I caught hundreds and never had a problem, and I never killed snakes unless absolutely necessary. Most are completely harmless, and they all serve a purpose. As for shooting alligators with bows--or anything else--you better have a permit, as they are protected. I waded lakes and fished the shoreline for years, swam, skied, gators all around and never had a problem. I never knew of anyone that did either. They are really not a problem. I spent a good bit of my life there in Florida in and on the water, and if you don't screw with them they won't screw with you.
 
What about crocodiles?
 
     There are crocs in FL, but the American Croc is rarely seen and inhabit extreme southern and SW FL--the everglades and ten thousand islands areas. I've seen one in my life, near Chokoloskee, and he was huge, almost the size of my bassboat of 16 ft. We were about a fifty yards away and he turned away and sunk out of sight. Easy to distinguish from a gator, but there are so few of them around and I've never heard of anyone troubled by one, or even anyone that knows much about them.

      I have no idea why there aren't much larger numbers of them unless they are less adaptable to the infrequent severe cold snaps there. I have a friend that is an officer with the  FWS and he said that several years ago many gators and crocs were killed when the temps plunged to below freezing and they weren't used to it. I've been there fishing during one of those cold snaps, in 1977 or 1978, and we had snow flurries in the ten thousand islands south of Marco Island. Snook, sand perch, gators, etc., floating everywhere the next day. Of note to those in that area--the season and limits apply to the floating fish the same as if caught by hook and line!
 
lakeliving said:
I've never met your wife Dan but I was referring to THEIR mating season, not sure when your 3 day window is... Just kidding!!! I had to!!!!
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What?  I'm supposed to get three days???
 
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