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When i was young we used to convert our fising gear into snake gear. We would catch mostly cottonmouths and other water snakes. Some of our bigger catches were past 7 feet. Our first catch was under a wood slat bridge. I tied a fishing line onto a stick with a hook tied to the other end of the line. I lowered the line through the space bettween the wood planks on the bridge and hooked a snake that was laying underwater. I quickly reeled the snake up by rotating the stick letting the line wrap around it. After i pulled the snake from sthe water i tied off the line to the stick and let it to rest on the bridge suspending it jsut above the water, the snake stayed coiled even hooked in the air! With one trusty rock from my brother with his sling shot i killed it, cut off and burried its head.
We took our prize home and started to figure out how to clean and eat this beast. I also had plans to make bracelets out of the skin! Well i decided that i would use heavy duty scissors and cut up along where the belly met the tough scales. All went well untill i cut something that exploded guts into my face and it looked just like that picture!
Much to my horror I knew then that i had killed a pregnant female cottonmouth. We didnt know that the snake was spawning and felt horrible! We decided we needed to learn alot more about snakes so off to the library we went!