Lake sonoma snake

I saw this guy from a mile away.

It was in my canoe days...

Very tame, didnt even try to bite me.

C & R

Thanks for keeping my wife off the lake Ben.

Hope you know your snakes. All I've seen at Sonoma were rattlesnakes. Be carefull. That is a nice gopher snake.
And they are timid most of the time.

Cool gopher snake.

I captured and kept a few of them as a kid.  I also had a california king snake for a while.  I caught a San Francisco Garter snake last year at my house in Santa Cruz last year, but let it go before the Feds came and locked me up.

I've never seen a gopher in a tree, I always thought they were pretty terrestrial.  Very interesting.

MolBasser

Very tame, didnt even try to bite me.

sure Ben....that's exactly what this guy was thinking until.......
 

Dont worryI know my snakes and other critters, have had cobras and african puff adders for a long time. You dont want to be tagged by a rattlesnake, you will probably live, but it causes a lot of organ damage and a lot of times amputation, but all that gopher could do is draw a little blood, Id take that over a rockfish spining any day.
Mickfish- that was the only snake at l.s.
I caught this one here that day-

Hope you know your snakes. All I've seen at Sonoma were rattlesnakes. Be carefull. That is a nice gopher snake.
And they are timid most of the time.

Oh man, hope my son doesn't read this.....I've got him convinced that I am super courageous handling gophers.

Actually, Gophers have drawn blood from me on numerous occasions.  I find the smaller ones are the most aggresive.

Great pic Ben, I've never seen one in a tree either.  Home terrariums now contain one ball python and one beautiful 5' mexican black kingsnake.  Each eat 2 mice every week. We love feeding time at my house.  I'm going to have to start raising mice myself, these snakes cost more than a dog does.

Allen

ps Mooch:  If you ever want to sleep over before fishing in Santa Cruz, you are welcome.  The terrariums are right next to the downstairs "guest couch."

ps Mooch:  If you ever want to sleep over before fishing in Santa Cruz, you are welcome.  The terrariums are right next to the downstairs "guest couch."

thanks for the offer Allen....but I'd rather sleep on the MIDDLE of a busy street 
 
 
 

Mooch, that a great pic of the guy with the snake on his face!

I had a "pet" gopher snake for a couple weeks when I was a kid. That thing was about 5 feet long and MEAN! I mean it was one wily SOB. My parents made me release it.
Also had a couple CA king snakes that were all caught in my backyard. Those things were cool.

I need to go find a bunch of king snakes and release them on my parent's property near Placerville soon. There are a lot of rattlers...in fact, my mom got bit back in August and nearly died. It was very, very scary. I never knew how deadly those suckers can be until "the incident." Now I kill every rattler I come across. My dad even bought one of those tree-limb trimmers (the kind with a long extension and scissor-action saw) so we can chop their heads off from 10 feet away! There are a lot of em up there...the dog has been bit twice in the past 4 years...although I'm not sure if that means we have a stupid dog or that there are a lot of rattlers..?!

Don't take them lightly. They ARE deadly.
PK

Can you, or do you eat the rattlesnakes after you snip their heads off?  I've heard snake isnt bad.

tastes like chicken