NF Yuba...Snake in the water?

[BobVP]

Just returned for a wonderful few days on the NFY and a few of the great smaller creeks in the area around Downieville (I am very happy to have missed the bike classic by a week!). Good fishing early and late, even a little action in the mid day.

Wading the NFY near Sierra City I saw something I have never seen before in California waters (that is 50+ years now...), a small (16 - 18") snake coiled in a rock pocket in about 2' of water. Perfectly relaxed. Just watching the world go by. Once I startled it it rose to the surface and swam off. Brown with chevron markings of lighter brown and a very dark brown head which was sharply triangular.

Is this an anomaly? All these years the only snakes I have ever seen in California waters have been on the surface and they have all been familiar, garter, rattler (do not ask....I still get the shivers) but this one was simply "living" on the bottom.

[bigfly]

I once startled a client by reaching straight down into the water and coming up with a little water snake like yours......
They hunt fry under water.......totally normal, and harmless.....
Had a nature moment with my guys a few days ago.....watched one hunt in the shallows and grab a lil fish. Big as his head....

Jim

[BobVP]

Thanks Jim.
It looked pretty harmless.
Then again you may have a hard time convincing someone like my brother who got bit by a "harmless" garter snake. He said it hurt like the dickens.
The odd thing to me is that I have just never seen one before.

[bigfly]

Don't play with them and you won't get bitten.....because they don't attack.....they will pee though...or musk.....
Not sure you want that smell on a fly either...

[Big Jim]

On the south fork of the T this summer I saw a snake on a steep bank with its tail wrapped around a root and in its mouth was a decent size rainbow trout. The snake had the fish by the head and was trying to drag it out of the water and up the bank... but the fish seemed too heavy. After about 15 minutes of watching I moved on, so I don't know who won the battle. It was not a large snake.

Jim

[pearl snaps]

I have come across two rattle snakes on the North Yuba this summer, both were between Gillespie dam and Romano Ranch Road. The second snake rattled me, I never saw it but instantly jumped about five feet latterly into the river. That was unnerving... I also came across a rattle snake on Pauley Creek in the spring and two on Fordyce Creek in early August. One of the Fordyce rattlers was over three feet. All five rattle snakes were within three feet of the streams. The very high winter / spring flows have, as we all know, exposed lots of streamside tree roots and that is where all five rattle snakes were. Last week I talked to a miner who was working the river in the Fournier Ranch area and he told me he had killed a rattle snake a couple of days before. In thirty years of fishing the North Yuba I hadn't encountered a rattle snake until this year. With the excessive heat this Labor Day Weekend be very careful along the banks,...especially near exposed tree roots. Carry and use a wading staff.

Peter

[dsfj40]

Here is a picture from south fork stan a couple weeks ago. Snake has fish by the gills and every time fish would move snake would clamp down

[Randy Lee]

Gosh I thought only stripers ate trout and salmon molt! Its nice to know there are a few Garter snakes still around.
They took a heavy decline right behind the red legged and yellow legged frogs. Pretty much harmless as previously mentioned.
Nice picture.

[Morgan]

Garter snakes in decline..?
Not around here. They are all over the place.
A fun harmless snake for all to marvel over and sometimes catch.
Some clients would rather catch snakes then fish.

[Troutsource]

Found a small scorpion under a rock a few years ago in an sandy area of the NFY.