Dave, a buddy of mine and I had been fishing on one of the many lakes in central Florida.
The fishing was incredible. We had been using big shiners and it seemed that those largemouth bass were almost eager to be caught.
We had caught several fish in the eight pound category, releasing them no worse for the wear.
It seems that each time we cast one of those big shiners toward shore and allowed that shiner to run into the lily pads there was a strike.
At days end we motored back to the dock and tied up with the intent of returning early the following day.
The bait well still contained a good number of big shiners and we were hoping to have a repeat performance of that days fishing.
We were back on the lake the next morning and were ready to start fishing when Dave lifted the lid on the bait well.
That is when I learned that Dave didn’t really like snakes.
“SNAKE, SNAKE, SNAKE!!!” He shouted, just as a big fat “cottonmouth water moccasin” about four feet long came boiling out of that bait well.
Now I can’t prove this but what with Dave’s contortions and his screaming and shouting “SNAKE!” like he was doing that snake was probably more scared than Dave.
That snake was all over the bottom of the boat.
More to keep out of Dave’s way than the snake’s I took up a precarious position of relative safety on top of the fifty horsepower Evinrude and it was with some difficulty and with the help of a convenient oar that I was finally able to convince Dave that two of us could not possibly stand on the engine at the same time so it was probably understandable that he endeavored to knock me into the lake.
Finally, after dodging Dave’s # 11 shoes for awhile the poor snake slithered over the side of the boat and swam away muttering little snaky curses over his shoulder. (I bet you didn’t know that snakes got shoulders.)
We were never able to figure how that snake got into that bait well. Probably a mad practical joker put it there.
Dave never could tell the difference between a cottonmouth water moccasin and a brown water snake.
That practical joke backfired though ’cause when the mad practical joker dumped that snake into the bait well he didn’t figure the snake would eat all of the shiners so our fishing was over but I can still see Dave, that beautiful expression of horror on his face when he lifted the lid to the bait well and that snake almost ended up in his lap.

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