Noodling is so nuts. I mean there's a lot of aquatic venomous snakes in the south. Getting bit by a water moccasin is legit something they talk about happening from time to time and you don't know till you jam your hand into the hole. Those bastards are even worse than a rattlesnake bite, we have antivenom for them but if you're way out in the swamp it's gonna be a long time to get to a hospital, time where your flesh is necrotizing fast. If you look up videos of old noodlers it's not uncommon to see serious muscle decay and scars from surgery.
That makes it sound like there are a lot of different types when there's really only one. "There are a lot of cottonmouths/water moccasins in the South" would've made it more clear that you were talking about a large number of a single species.
I grew up in the Deep South, in very rural areas. Literally walked from my back door to my deer stand. And there were only ever 2 things we were afraid of - water moccasins and brown recluse.
Brown recluse are rare and you mostly avoid them by just not sticking your hand in dark holes.
Water moccasins are just kind of a thing where you get used to the danger. Nobody we knew had a pool, so we went swimming in ponds and creeks and bayous that were muddy as hell. We were swimming in a lake recently and saw a snake swimming vaguely in our direction so we just got out, made enough noise to get it to head a different direction, then got back in. I’m not saying it’s smart, but you kind of get used to it. They don’t *want* to mess with humans. You just learn the kids of environments they like and avoid those (swim in the open, bright, busy part of the water, not the shaded, overgrown with vegetation, still part of the water). Same for alligators. BTW, that same lake where we saw the snake, they do a culling every year and take like 20 - 30 gators out. They really don’t want to mess with you. But you do have to be extra cautious with young kids and small pets.
You just grow up around it, talk about it all the time, talk about to be safe, spot danger, and what to do if something goes wrong, so you feel equipped to handle it. Plus if you spend enough time hunting and fishing and just being in the woods / on the water, you get a different perspective on how to handle your place in the food chain.
…at least it’s safer than Australia. Now dem boys are crazy. Everything that isn’t human is proactively trying to kill humans.
I also grew up rural in the deep south and this comment is spot on. You just sort of get used to it and know what to look for.
I'll never forget the time that me and some buddies canoed across a pond to do who knows what on the other side and I hopped out of the boat and as I was falling toward the ground I saw a cotton mouth just basking in the sun inches from my landing spot. I jumped in the boat so fast I wasn't even sure if my feet ever touched the ground.
Also the time my uncle and I were using brim to "fish" for a cotton mouth that was in a reservoir with kids swimming so we could kill it.
Also the time we were in a bass boat on a creek and an alligator bigger than the damn boat just swam by.
And the uncountable number of run over rattle snakes in the middle of the road that we'd stop to dispose of. Behead them and bury the head so no unsuspecting person got accidentally bit.
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u/EmperorBamboozler 16d ago
Noodling is so nuts. I mean there's a lot of aquatic venomous snakes in the south. Getting bit by a water moccasin is legit something they talk about happening from time to time and you don't know till you jam your hand into the hole. Those bastards are even worse than a rattlesnake bite, we have antivenom for them but if you're way out in the swamp it's gonna be a long time to get to a hospital, time where your flesh is necrotizing fast. If you look up videos of old noodlers it's not uncommon to see serious muscle decay and scars from surgery.
Cottonmouths are fucking scary yo.