07-22-2003, 05:56 PM
[cool]Hey, Leaky, I'm glad that Bud is "snakeproof" and that he is your ears when it comes to rattlers. When most people start to suffer hearing loss, it is usually in the lower ranges, where the sound of a rattler falls. I have a similar problem, but I can still hear them.
I have seen rattlesnakes all over the country...from my boyhood fishing areas in Idaho to Florida. I have probably seen over twenty different species...including the ones that do not even have rattles, on a couple of islands in the Gulf of California (Sea of Cortez). I have seen the reddish Pacific diamondback in California, and some in the high country of Arizona that are almost all black. The nastiest are the Mohave rattlers, of southern California and into Arizona. They are mean and aggressive, and they have a double action poison...both neurotoxin and hemotoxin. That both shuts down your breathing and heatbeat and digests your tissue from the inside.
The snakes in Utah seldom get over three to four feet. In some areas they are timber rattlers, and in other areas they are prairie rattlers. The big western diamondbacks we have down in Arizona get up to almost 6 feet. But, the champs are the eastern diamondbacks in Florida. They have been reliably measured at 8 feet, and as big around as a man's thigh. They eat whole cottontails and have fangs an inch long. Definitely not something you would want to interfere with a fishing trip.
Just be thankful you don't have water moccassins up there. They do not rattle and they are some of the most aggressive of the poisonous snakes in the country. They will move toward you, striking as they come, once they sense you. Almost every rattler I have ever encountered has either held it's ground, or tried to slither away.
I used to hike the tracks along Deer Creek Reservoir a lot. I saw a lot of rattlers there...especially in the evenings on warm days. I also found a few along the tracks on the Provo River, below Deer Creek.
It pays to stay alert and always watch where you are going. Look first under any bushes you might pass close by, and even up into the bushes. Snakes sometimes crawl up off the ground to escape the heat or watch for prey.
A "city clicker" joke down here is about a guy staying on a dude ranch (no relation), who came into dinner one evening, shaking a set of rattlesnake rattles. One of the other city folks asked him where he got them. His reply was "Off a big woim." (that's WORM to youse guys dat don't speak New Yawk)
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I have seen rattlesnakes all over the country...from my boyhood fishing areas in Idaho to Florida. I have probably seen over twenty different species...including the ones that do not even have rattles, on a couple of islands in the Gulf of California (Sea of Cortez). I have seen the reddish Pacific diamondback in California, and some in the high country of Arizona that are almost all black. The nastiest are the Mohave rattlers, of southern California and into Arizona. They are mean and aggressive, and they have a double action poison...both neurotoxin and hemotoxin. That both shuts down your breathing and heatbeat and digests your tissue from the inside.
The snakes in Utah seldom get over three to four feet. In some areas they are timber rattlers, and in other areas they are prairie rattlers. The big western diamondbacks we have down in Arizona get up to almost 6 feet. But, the champs are the eastern diamondbacks in Florida. They have been reliably measured at 8 feet, and as big around as a man's thigh. They eat whole cottontails and have fangs an inch long. Definitely not something you would want to interfere with a fishing trip.
Just be thankful you don't have water moccassins up there. They do not rattle and they are some of the most aggressive of the poisonous snakes in the country. They will move toward you, striking as they come, once they sense you. Almost every rattler I have ever encountered has either held it's ground, or tried to slither away.
I used to hike the tracks along Deer Creek Reservoir a lot. I saw a lot of rattlers there...especially in the evenings on warm days. I also found a few along the tracks on the Provo River, below Deer Creek.
It pays to stay alert and always watch where you are going. Look first under any bushes you might pass close by, and even up into the bushes. Snakes sometimes crawl up off the ground to escape the heat or watch for prey.
A "city clicker" joke down here is about a guy staying on a dude ranch (no relation), who came into dinner one evening, shaking a set of rattlesnake rattles. One of the other city folks asked him where he got them. His reply was "Off a big woim." (that's WORM to youse guys dat don't speak New Yawk)
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