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.