I wasn't sure on this one. Head was triangle shaped, but the rear jaw area was more squared at the corners. A rattle snakes head is more rounded at the corners in the rear. I wasn't sure.

Ask him to say Ahhhhh!

Banded water-snake

I was thinking this.

touch it with a stick and see if it plays dead. Could be an eastern hog nose snake.

Look like a cotton mouth to me. Is he dead?

Oh no, he was very much alive. We were bass fishing at a local pond and I came across him. I thought he was a cotton mouth at first, but I'm not 100%. The cotton mouth's and regular water snakes I have the most trouble telling the difference on. What are the big differences to distinguish between the two?

That depends on how close you want to get. If you cant already tell by the patterns, Water snakes will have very distinct vertical lines on the mouth, no pit. A cotton mouth will have a hood over the eye that keeps you from seeing the eyeball if looking directly from the top and obviously a pit just like a rattlesnake.

I lean to water snake.
Main thing I've noticed with Cottonmouths are their necks are slender compared to their body and head size as well as their tail.

About how long was he?

Got the stump tail like a CM. Just saying.
Does it smell bad ?

X3

Water Snake.

Almost every Cottonmouth I see in the DFW area is nearly solid black. In the rare instance I see one with markings its usually much more faint than the one in the pic. I probably see 25 Water Snakes of various kinds to every 1 Cottonmouth so I think Cottonmouths are much more rare in these parts than people think. With that being said I will probably get bit by a Cottonmouth tomorrow. LOL

Looks like a water snake to me

100% Banded Water Snake.

The main question is it dead?

Every cottonmouth I have ever encountered.....and it’s been several....was extremely docile. And almost every single water snake I’ve encountered has been very, very aggressive.....

Most people don’t know the difference and call them all cottonmouths.....

Also a lot of water snakes will flatten their head and spread their jaws trying to imitate a cottonmouth.....

Water snakes are fun to watch, me and my brother spent a weekend fishing on our big pond last year, and there were about 4 water snakes in the pond and they'd be booking it across from one side to another, and a few minutes later they come back across, sometimes they'd look at the boat and come up close to it, then turn around and head for shore...neat suckers.

That is a very fat body compared to its length. Thats one tell tale sign of a poisonous snake compared to a non venomous snake. About the only way to tell from that far. That one may have gotten the judge.

Very difficult to tell but the water snakes i see usually aren’t that plump in the body and if they are its a very obvious bump from a fish or something.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^


THIS

Best description on the thread. I kill both because they both eat my fish.

A healthy Banded Water Snake (which is what that snake is) can dwarf a Cotton Mouth. I wouldn't use a 'stout' body as a diagnostic tool for distinguishing a venomous snake from a 'non'. Too many variables...not the least of which are age, health and environment of the snake.

Yeah, water snakes seem to go out of their way to be jerks. Kind of like wasps.