Snake on my boat!
- Thread starter Ken Haptonstall
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Ken Haptonstall
Member
It could have come over the transom and up into the boat. That is the freaky part, I just don't know how it got on. And, how long it was in there.
Ken Haptonstall
Member
Sorry.
Ken Haptonstall
Member
I've been going since I was 5 years old, so now 45 years and have only seen two snakes. Neither rattle snakes and certainly not on a boat.
Dungee
Keeper of San Juan Secrets
The only two snakes we've ever seen at Powell were both bull snakes and they were in the same cove across from bullfrog. I'm not that concerned but it will definitely be on my mind now ha.
Waterbaby
Escalante-Class Member
Remember the story Pete wrote about his trip to Alamo and the rattle snakes [plural] on his boat. IIRC the snakes got on the boat while he was driving on the road to the lake. Wish we still had all his stories as this would be the perfect place to post that story -it was quite something and told as only Pete could tell a tale.
PBH
Well-Known Member
We heard the call for the snake on the boat too. Not fun. Glad I didn't have to deal with it! However, what I would have done, and for future invasions: Take a fishing rod and tie a large "lasso" or slipknot. Get the head of the snake in the hoop, and tighten it up against the end of your rod. Then you can walk it out wherever you want, and cut your line.....
On that same day (Wednesday), we launched and started fishing Bullfrog Bay. Directly across from the houseboat field that is a small cove (crack) with a bunch of cottonwoods sticking out of the water. We pulled up in there to see if we could pull a bass out....no luck. As we started backing out of the trees I started to pay attention to the branches and leaves. That's when I started hyperventilating. No, not a snake. I could have handled a snake. It was the spiders!! Big spiders -- by the hundreds! The branches were literally covered with them. Pale-green with black stripes, and huge bulbous bodies. Killers for sure! I was freaking out yelling at my brother to get us out of there before they started attacking! Crazy -- never before had my life threatened quite like that! Scary as hell.
I've been in Minersville (southern utah) in my pontoon (float tube pontoon) when I noticed a weird wake coming directly towards me. It took a minute to realize the wake was being made by a snake, and the snake wanted on my pontoon! Believe me: you cannot kick faster than a snake can swim! I was ready to surrender the pontoon to the snake, and abandon ship! I started swatting at the snake with my flyrod, and luckily deterrred the attempted invasion.
Scary stuff.
On that same day (Wednesday), we launched and started fishing Bullfrog Bay. Directly across from the houseboat field that is a small cove (crack) with a bunch of cottonwoods sticking out of the water. We pulled up in there to see if we could pull a bass out....no luck. As we started backing out of the trees I started to pay attention to the branches and leaves. That's when I started hyperventilating. No, not a snake. I could have handled a snake. It was the spiders!! Big spiders -- by the hundreds! The branches were literally covered with them. Pale-green with black stripes, and huge bulbous bodies. Killers for sure! I was freaking out yelling at my brother to get us out of there before they started attacking! Crazy -- never before had my life threatened quite like that! Scary as hell.
I've been in Minersville (southern utah) in my pontoon (float tube pontoon) when I noticed a weird wake coming directly towards me. It took a minute to realize the wake was being made by a snake, and the snake wanted on my pontoon! Believe me: you cannot kick faster than a snake can swim! I was ready to surrender the pontoon to the snake, and abandon ship! I started swatting at the snake with my flyrod, and luckily deterrred the attempted invasion.
Scary stuff.
That my friend is 6 or 7 to many! bummer, something else to worry about. Could it be because of the water moving higher and they are looking for a new home?
Meatwagon
Keeper of San Juan Secrets
All of them were seen in the spring during rising water, I would think that they were flooded out of there den.
My Lake Powell snake experiences:
1. We do a lot of hiking around the lake with our dogs in the winter and spring – we usually stop the hiking when we believe the snakes are coming out of hibernation – usually sometime in March when the days start to warm up. About 15 years ago, we were hiking on the East side of Warm Creek in early April with both dogs. We came across two very large rattlesnakes sunning themselves on the rocks. I’m talking 3 plus foot long snakes. Luckily both my wife and I saw them about 20 feet in front of us before either dog did. We headed back to the boat and now stop hiking with the dogs in early March.
2. We camped in Padre Canyon in May of this year. Our beach was nice but did not provide any protection from wind waves coming across Padre Bay from the direction of Face Canyon, and wind was expected, so we decided to go around the corner of the bay we were camped in and see if we could move for more protection. We saw lizard tracks, mice tracks, and a well-defined snake track in the virgin sand about 5 feet from the water and right where we would have to nose in. We decided to take our chances with the wind on an unprotected beach!
3. We were camped on a beach in Padre Bay in September a few years ago. A wind storm came up and basically smoothed the sand on the beach so it was all flat – no footprints or anything. The next morning, there were at least 5 tracks in the sand of snakes that had come down to the water from way up the beach where the brush and weeds were. Some of the tracks also returned, but some didn’t – I assume they went swimming? We left that beach that day.
4. We were exploring canyons in our dinghy midway between the North and South end of the lake about 7 years ago. Our rule of thumb is to always go to the end of the canyon where there is no more water – a rule that has provided us some great experiences over the years. We got to the back of this canyon and at water level for about 100 feet in length it looked like someone had dragged something into the water. We beached and got out and started walking up the sandy hill. As we went up the hill the trails started to spread out. Think of it as a funnel that is 100 ft wide at the bottom and 500 ft wide at the top. It became clear that these were snake tracks once we got high enough that we could see individual tracks instead of what seriously must have been hundreds of tracks that went to the water. Very freaky. We high tailed it back to the dinghy and left that area fast!
5. Hiking up Antelope Canyon from the water up in July a few years ago, we were 30 minutes into the hike when some people were coming down the canyon and mentioned that there were two rattlesnakes up ahead and for us to be careful. We turned around and went back to the boat.
6. Last Memorial Day weekend (2016) we were camped up Gunsight Canyon. My daughter in law loves lizards and she always tries to catch them – and is successful on occasion. She was playing with a lizard in the rocks and kept hearing a noise but didn’t know what it was. When she was through playing with the lizard, she came back to the boat and told us about the noise – it was a rattler rattling its tail! We pulled up the sound of a rattlesnake on google to play for her – sure enough that was what she was hearing – obviously she was way too close for comfort to this snake.
Note that in nearly 40 years boating on LP, I have personally only had 1 incident of actually seeing a snake – all others were only seeing tracks or hearing about others that saw them. Let’s hope it stays this way!
1. We do a lot of hiking around the lake with our dogs in the winter and spring – we usually stop the hiking when we believe the snakes are coming out of hibernation – usually sometime in March when the days start to warm up. About 15 years ago, we were hiking on the East side of Warm Creek in early April with both dogs. We came across two very large rattlesnakes sunning themselves on the rocks. I’m talking 3 plus foot long snakes. Luckily both my wife and I saw them about 20 feet in front of us before either dog did. We headed back to the boat and now stop hiking with the dogs in early March.
2. We camped in Padre Canyon in May of this year. Our beach was nice but did not provide any protection from wind waves coming across Padre Bay from the direction of Face Canyon, and wind was expected, so we decided to go around the corner of the bay we were camped in and see if we could move for more protection. We saw lizard tracks, mice tracks, and a well-defined snake track in the virgin sand about 5 feet from the water and right where we would have to nose in. We decided to take our chances with the wind on an unprotected beach!
3. We were camped on a beach in Padre Bay in September a few years ago. A wind storm came up and basically smoothed the sand on the beach so it was all flat – no footprints or anything. The next morning, there were at least 5 tracks in the sand of snakes that had come down to the water from way up the beach where the brush and weeds were. Some of the tracks also returned, but some didn’t – I assume they went swimming? We left that beach that day.
4. We were exploring canyons in our dinghy midway between the North and South end of the lake about 7 years ago. Our rule of thumb is to always go to the end of the canyon where there is no more water – a rule that has provided us some great experiences over the years. We got to the back of this canyon and at water level for about 100 feet in length it looked like someone had dragged something into the water. We beached and got out and started walking up the sandy hill. As we went up the hill the trails started to spread out. Think of it as a funnel that is 100 ft wide at the bottom and 500 ft wide at the top. It became clear that these were snake tracks once we got high enough that we could see individual tracks instead of what seriously must have been hundreds of tracks that went to the water. Very freaky. We high tailed it back to the dinghy and left that area fast!
5. Hiking up Antelope Canyon from the water up in July a few years ago, we were 30 minutes into the hike when some people were coming down the canyon and mentioned that there were two rattlesnakes up ahead and for us to be careful. We turned around and went back to the boat.
6. Last Memorial Day weekend (2016) we were camped up Gunsight Canyon. My daughter in law loves lizards and she always tries to catch them – and is successful on occasion. She was playing with a lizard in the rocks and kept hearing a noise but didn’t know what it was. When she was through playing with the lizard, she came back to the boat and told us about the noise – it was a rattler rattling its tail! We pulled up the sound of a rattlesnake on google to play for her – sure enough that was what she was hearing – obviously she was way too close for comfort to this snake.
Note that in nearly 40 years boating on LP, I have personally only had 1 incident of actually seeing a snake – all others were only seeing tracks or hearing about others that saw them. Let’s hope it stays this way!
Ryan
Keeper of San Juan Secrets
@Pegasus , if you enjoy hiking with your pups, you might consider a snake avoidance training for them. It is rare for me to take my dogs to Powell (a good hunting dog makes for a poor boating dog, especially when they are 90 pounds), but we hike and hunt in areas where snakes are not unusual.
The training we did used live rattlers (defanged), and the dog would not pass the training unless they gave the last snake a wide berth. I am pretty sure that they now want no part of a snake.
The training we did used live rattlers (defanged), and the dog would not pass the training unless they gave the last snake a wide berth. I am pretty sure that they now want no part of a snake.
birdsnest
Keeper of San Juan Secrets
Rattlesnake waterfalls, now that's a lovely thought.
birdsnest
Keeper of San Juan Secrets
I'd watch it......... for a minute
Ryan
Keeper of San Juan Secrets
Surf and turf?Preston, think of the benefits of having fish and sn@ke for dinner . Spice up the menu, a little...
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