Hmmm, snook stories. Yeah, seeing how I lived in Walla Walla, I got a few rattle snook stories for you.

Was fly fishing on the lower Wally Wally for anything that would bite a fly. I had just moved down stream a bit, and was standing on the edge of the river when I felt something tapping against my rubber Hodgeman wader. Looking down, I noticed a cute little 6" rattler striking at my boot! How cute. Stomp! Nowadays, I wouldn't have killed that poor little snook.

The next rattler story came a few years later when I was up on the Snook River fishing for carp above one of the Dams. Yes, carp. Was using a bow and arrow. Actually, we could have cared less about the carp and more to the point that it was just damn fun to shoot arrows at fish. Most of the river bank was nothing more than huge boulders. As I was walking down and across these huge boulders to get to the river, I stepped down on to a boulder and immediately heard something growl and hiss at me. At first, I figured it was a rat. It really did sound like an animal and not a snook. As I looked down, I damn near pissed my pants as I realized that I had just stepped within inches of a 6' long rattler that was completely laid out and sunning itself! Naturally, I froze solid and I swear that every hair on my body stood straight up in fear!!! Fortunately, the snook never did coil up and strike. After what seemed like an eternity (more like a few seconds), the big old snook slowly slid away in the rocks. Oh, did I mention that I was wearing tennis shoes with no socks? In any case, I think I set the US Olympic Record in the "Getting the hell off the rocks" event.

Less interesting stories include killing the copperhead snooks in Missouri back when I was a kid on vacation. Every morning, I'd have to get up and kill the copperheads that were eating the dog food out of the dog dish. Won't even talk about the day I brought home to Grandma a Folgers can full of garter snooks. That didn't go over so well, seeing how Grandma was deathly afraid of all snooks.

Parker
The Snook Hunter