Can you blame him for the reaction?
Editor's note: This post was first publish in July, 2019.
If you're fishing in Texas, it's pretty much a given that you've been warned of snakes. Maybe you've encountered one or two, slithering through the shore grass or swimming past your lure.
Those are the good kind of encounters, but of course it can get worse. Luckily, the only thing getting hassled by the snake in this story is a catfish, one that just so happens to already be hooked to some fishing line.
That resulted in a rather interesting catch for this Houston angler.
Check out the Storyful video that ABC 13 in Houston shared.
The fisherman in the video was Chase McCray, who originally posted the video and spoke to ABC 13 after the fact.
He was fishing in Langham Creek near Copperfield Place in northwestern Harris County at the beginning of July back in 2019. Perhaps a bit more brazen than some might be around snakes, McCray didn't hesitate to use a knife to pry the two creatures apart.
"I took the knife to get the snake off the fish and released the fish," McCray explained. "The snake had a few wounds from the knife, but I released it as well."
Sounds like he did his part to try and avoid serious injury or mishap. All the same, unless you're positive what kind of snake you're dealing with, it's best to leave them alone, even if they're interfering with your day of fishing.
This could be a water snake, a fairly common inhabitant of East Texas waterways, or even a hook-nosed snake, but without total certainty there's always risk. Venomous and non-venomous snakes can look very similar, and individuals can sometimes take on unique colors or other characteristics, making true identification a tough thing to nail down.
All we're saying is, don't take a chance if you don't know for sure.
And of course, watch out for these sorts of things before you reel in your next fish.
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