Water Snakes

[johnincolorado]

Don't know about using water snakes for bait, never tried that but I do know about snakes. One evening, a long time ago, my Dad and I were night fishing using minnows. One of the dead minnows was under his boot and he felt a light tugging. A water snake was trying to get that dead minnow. My Dad picked it up by the tail and flipped it out into the dark, beyond the light of our lantern. I heard it splash. A short ime later, maybe fifteen or twenty minutes, he felt that tugging again, that snake was back. He grabbed its tail and popped it like a whip. I know I heard it pop. He flipped it out into the darkness again. "We won't see it again," he said. But within thirty minutes, that snake was back, determined to get that minnow. This time, he took his trusty Buck knife and sliced that snake like a fillet, cross-ways, down its back, back up and down (a Japanese chef would have been proud). Picking it up by its tail, he flipped it hard out into the night.<br> Now I don't know if that snake was possessed or not. Supposedly, where we were fishing, was located an old Indian burial ground, complete with ghosts and spirits of the night. The Comanche Indian tribe had a legend that any warrior that died in battle, but in a disgraceful manner, was destined to walk the earth as a snake until it proved its worth to be allowed into the Happy Hunting Grounds.<br> About an hour later, it was well after midnight by now but I wasn't about to lay down on the ground, my Dad felt that same tugging again. Looking down, that sliced-up snake was trying for that minnow. This time, my Dad whipped out his Buck and cut its head off. This he threw into the night downstream. he cut that snake into tiny pieces and threw them in different directions until his arm was tired. "If that snake comes back again, we're leaving," he said.<br> But we never saw that snake again.<br><br>