Not to worry, Kent. I've seen enough episodes of "The Crocodile Hunter", that I'm now fully qualified to harass killer snooks!

"Danga! Danga! Danga! Ooooo, are you grumpy litta fella? Don't try this at home. I'm a trained herpatologist, let me just grab you by the tail mate. Don't you bite me! Aww crikey, it bit me!"

Years ago, backpacked into Tehachipi Valley in the central Sierra Neveda Mountains in Calif. Can't remember the name of the river now, maybe one of the forks of the King. Anyway, this was pretty remote. I was the first one fishing down the river, nailed a couple 12 - 14 'bows. My Dad was coming behind me about 2 holes back. He killed two Rattlers in the trail, that I had apparently walked right by! We saw one more that afternoon next to the river. Being a remote area, and not wanting to deal with the possibility of snake bite...we hiked out the next day.

CedarR-

Would that be the Rat Lake out by Brewster? Heck, my dad spent a number of years killing rattlers out there. Good fishing, if you don't mind being paranoid as all heck.

fobbman, that's the one. This might surprise some people, but scorpions are also found in the Okanogan area. I'd heard they were around, but had never encountered one. One day we were taking pictures of rattlers in front of a den. Had to move a rock to get a better view, and when I lifted the rock there was a scorpion under it. Basically just a crawdad with a skinny, poison-tipped tail. I'll save the rest of the story for the "Ticks and Black Widow Spiders" thread

GREAT story HAWK , i was asked to work at the lyle plant of martin, years ago , but the wages were very low at that time , my son an i hunt chuckers in them hills . fortunatly the snakes are holed up then . we ran into a bull snake last october .i figured if that snake was out there might be some rattlers around but we never saw any , nor do i want to .thats always a worry with the dog flushing birds.

Hey brah, I didn't click on this thread because I thought it was another one about Pilar . I've only had one - walking the trails next to Oregon's Deschutes R. I almost stepped on the biggest rattle snake I've ever seen. It's P.O.'d buzzing rattle warning brought me eyes off the river just in time to stop in my tracks just short of striking distance; barely! He looked close to 3" in diameter and very long even coiled. I got a branch to cut a 'Y' into and tried to get the thing w/o getting within striking range but I couldn't get a good enough hold to keep his head trapped before he slithered under some rocks. With it there I just walked back the other way. I wanted to see if it's true they taste like BBQ'd chicken.

RT

While duck hunting at McNary one fine 85 degree october day, had a rattler in the duck blind with my friends and me... I jumped at least 6 feet up and 6 more sideways! My father in law couldn't move because it was coiled and rattlin about 10 inches from his leg... he shoots it. I grab my dog, gun, and gear and head for my boat which was hidden in the reeds. (My first year in eastern wa I was a snake virgin then...) Grab the lab pick her up and toss her in the boat. I happen to look down and see another snake coiled around a rope on the side of my boat. It was six inches from a VERY BAD AREA to get bit! My hunting partners put it best, you get bit there, aint no way I'm sucking the poison out for you! Anyway, I jumped again to record heights, spun the boat sideways and shot it's head off... 2 rattlers in 5 minutes. Those suckers will keep moving and striking without a freakin head for well over an hour! Scared the crap out of a *****y gamey who liked to harrass us every weekend! But thats another story!

OK friends, this is the best story on snakes I can come up with. While sitting at the break table at work one day myself and about six other co-workers spent a whole hour on the snake subject. I myself think the best snake is a dead one. Well after lunch we all went back to are benches and went back to work. I was walking around the bench and stepped on a air hose. The hose had a pin hole leak and I must of stepped on it just right because the damn thing hissed at me. Of caorse the whole shop had to be watching this and I had reports I covered no less then 25 feet in a single step. Scared the livin bajeuse outta me. Pulled a muscle in my back which put me out for two days. I get back to work and everybody was calling me One Step. Death to all snakes.... and keep the air hoses rolled up ....

Two incidents.
First, while fishing for striped bass in the CA Aquaduct near Kettleman City with the wife and kids. Kids got bored and went back to the truck which was parked about 25 yards from where wife and me are fishing. Shortly, we notice that things have gotten quiet up by the truck. Then we hear the girl(8 yrs old) say to the boy (6 yrs old) "LETS MAKE IT HISS".
I shot the snake with my trusty Ruger and showed the kids the fangs.
To my knowledge, they never played with a Western Diamondback ever again.
Another time, I was fishing the California Sierras with a buddy that just couldn't stand snakes. This trip was over a three day weekend and we had already had run-ins with several rather large Rattlers. We were driving up a steep mountain road and I was driving a "racing line", taking the curves on the inside, when we came face to face with a Sherifs Deputy coming the opposite direction. He spun a u-turn and came after us to find out if I was drunk or something. The Deputy caught up to us and pulled me over on the shoulder to check things out. Well, I hadn't had a thing to drink so he had to let us go with just a warning. Little did I know that while pulling over, a small, sharp rock became wedged into the tread of one of my tires. About 3 miles down the road, this rock manged to put a small hole in my tire and air began to "HISS" loudly from the tire. My buddy Mike nearly jumped out of the truck at 50 MPH.
This was realy one of the funniest damn things I have ever seen.