Big Snake Stories in the Newspaper: When you live in the country, at least in Texas, anything you haven’t already heard is NEWS! This was all true all my life with the Saint Jo, TX...

Robert J Samples Loc: Round Rock, Texas

When you live in the country, at least in Texas, anything you haven’t already heard is NEWS! This was all true all my life with the Saint Jo, TX Tribune. Now I’ve subscribed to the Houston Chronicle, Dallas Morning News, McAllen Monitor and probably others, but Saint Jo Tribune is at the top simply because I could always keep up with my friends, classmates, and relatives in the obituary column.

Now, as a kid I did not offer any advice or articles to the editor of the Tribune, I guess because I wasn’t knowledgeable enough, nor did I think about it. This did not mean I didn’t have an opinion, I usually did, but shy about expressing it.

But there was one thing that usually would occur in the summer every two or three years. Some mischievous country boys would take an inner tube from a truck tire, inflate it, and find a sandy portion on one of our roads. There they would slowly drag this big rubber tube across the road, then go back and wipe out all their tracks. Then they would call the editor of the Tribune report to him about this giant snake track they had seen! This innocent prank would build circulation!

Don’t get me wrong, we did have big snakes, but not gigantic rattlers.
About six feet was the usual maximum size for a mature rattler. Once, in my senior year in high school, I was late for a date and was speeding along close to 80 mph and up ahead was a humongous rattler crawling across the gravel road. Its body reached from the left car wheel track and beyond the other right tire path. It had to have been more than six feet!

I was going far too fast to lock my wheels to kill it. That was the normal method while driving. I stopped and backed up to where I thought it had entered the Johnson grass beside the road. I tossed rocks in trying to get it to rattle.

Either it was already too wounded to rattle or was smart enough to remain silent and I was already late for a date, so I didn’t waste any more time.
But by the time I got out of high school and a few more years under my belt, I would on occasion send a note to the editor suggesting some topic or a subject I thought he should address.
Where there was controversy, I would, if I had an opinion write to the editor. I did on several times when back home and when I met the editor would offer a verbal suggestion. Also, at times send him a story, unusually it was fiction, to amuse his readers. I regularly suggested he do a summer snake story to boost his circulation.

If you are a regular reader of Fishing Forum/Stages, you will know I cannot remain silent, but am willing to tell some yarn, or story. (If you would like to read one of my stories printed in the Tribune, go back and search for an article with the word, (Chernobyl) He responded by offering to sell the Tribune to me. There’s no way I would want to be saddled with a small-town newspaper. I could only imagine all the troubles I would get into and the troubles that might arise, including lynching and such. I would without much effort step on someone’s toes.
For instance, the last ‘dust up’ I can remember had to do with the electric windmills that were now scattered along the bluff a few miles out of town. The ‘antis’ were complaining about the ugly appearance of these windmills. There were several ‘Letters to the Editor’ complaining about them.

Finally, I wrote to the editor and suggested that for each complaint, he should determine whether they got royalties for these wind chargers, or not. I suggested he would not hear a peep from any landowner who was receiving royalties. I said ‘take a look’ at all the oil well pump jacks, they were equally ugly, but you don’t hear anyone who had an oil well complaining about them, nor would anyone with wind turbines!

Now, it isn’t because I would not want to live in my hometown. I would but under different conditions. My father was approached by Mr. Fields, the president of the local bank asking if he thought I might be willing to come back to Saint Jo and work in the bank? Dad said he didn’t think so, and never told me about it. I do not know what kind of salary package he had in mind but would have liked to have decided for myself.
I could not be too critical, because I know dad and Mr. Fields had prearranged the loans to pay for my college expenses. You don’t complain when people behind the scenes are working to help you. Just Sayin…RJS

Chuckay Loc: Central Florida

Robert J Samples wrote:

When you live in the country, at least in Texas, anything you haven’t already heard is NEWS! This was all true all my life with the Saint Jo, TX Tribune. Now I’ve subscribed to the Houston Chronicle, Dallas Morning News, McAllen Monitor and probably others, but Saint Jo Tribune is at the top simply because I could always keep up with my friends, classmates, and relatives in the obituary column.

Now, as a kid I did not offer any advice or articles to the editor of the Tribune, I guess because I wasn’t knowledgeable enough, nor did I think about it. This did not mean I didn’t have an opinion, I usually did, but shy about expressing it.

But there was one thing that usually would occur in the summer every two or three years. Some mischievous country boys would take an inner tube from a truck tire, inflate it, and find a sandy portion on one of our roads. There they would slowly drag this big rubber tube across the road, then go back and wipe out all their tracks. Then they would call the editor of the Tribune report to him about this giant snake track they had seen! This innocent prank would build circulation!

Don’t get me wrong, we did have big snakes, but not gigantic rattlers.
About six feet was the usual maximum size for a mature rattler. Once, in my senior year in high school, I was late for a date and was speeding along close to 80 mph and up ahead was a humongous rattler crawling across the gravel road. Its body reached from the left car wheel track and beyond the other right tire path. It had to have been more than six feet!

I was going far too fast to lock my wheels to kill it. That was the normal method while driving. I stopped and backed up to where I thought it had entered the Johnson grass beside the road. I tossed rocks in trying to get it to rattle.

Either it was already too wounded to rattle or was smart enough to remain silent and I was already late for a date, so I didn’t waste any more time.
But by the time I got out of high school and a few more years under my belt, I would on occasion send a note to the editor suggesting some topic or a subject I thought he should address.
Where there was controversy, I would, if I had an opinion write to the editor. I did on several times when back home and when I met the editor would offer a verbal suggestion. Also, at times send him a story, unusually it was fiction, to amuse his readers. I regularly suggested he do a summer snake story to boost his circulation.

If you are a regular reader of Fishing Forum/Stages, you will know I cannot remain silent, but am willing to tell some yarn, or story. (If you would like to read one of my stories printed in the Tribune, go back and search for an article with the word, (Chernobyl) He responded by offering to sell the Tribune to me. There’s no way I would want to be saddled with a small-town newspaper. I could only imagine all the troubles I would get into and the troubles that might arise, including lynching and such. I would without much effort step on someone’s toes.
For instance, the last ‘dust up’ I can remember had to do with the electric windmills that were now scattered along the bluff a few miles out of town. The ‘antis’ were complaining about the ugly appearance of these windmills. There were several ‘Letters to the Editor’ complaining about them.

Finally, I wrote to the editor and suggested that for each complaint, he should determine whether they got royalties for these wind chargers, or not. I suggested he would not hear a peep from any landowner who was receiving royalties. I said ‘take a look’ at all the oil well pump jacks, they were equally ugly, but you don’t hear anyone who had an oil well complaining about them, nor would anyone with wind turbines!

Now, it isn’t because I would not want to live in my hometown. I would but under different conditions. My father was approached by Mr. Fields, the president of the local bank asking if he thought I might be willing to come back to Saint Jo and work in the bank? Dad said he didn’t think so, and never told me about it. I do not know what kind of salary package he had in mind but would have liked to have decided for myself.
I could not be too critical, because I know dad and Mr. Fields had prearranged the loans to pay for my college expenses. You don’t complain when people behind the scenes are working to help you. Just Sayin…RJS

When you live in the country, at least in Texas, a... (show quote)

Another good story Mr. Robert, a 6ft. rattle is a good size snake 😂 the old saying everything is bigger in Texas may not be true for snakes I think we have y'all beat as far as snakes go with a 16'4" Payton killed just down the road from me 🥴 and my buddy has about a 9-10 footer on his game cam only 2 miles away on the other side of me, so I'm just waiting to see one here on the farm, cause it's gonna be a bad day for the snake 👍

If you want to see and read about the big snakes we have around here look up ( Big snake killed it Zolfo Springs, Florida)

Passingbye Loc: Reidsville NC

It's not the big snake's I could see going across the road that bothered me, but the one's around my lake house shore hidden in the tall grass in or laying on a rock by the waters be edge getting a drink that caught me by surprise.

lil mutt Loc: North Texas

Mr. Samples, you did right by refusing the offer of owning a small town news paper. In the mid seventies, I wrote an outdoor column for the Keller Citizen for a year or so. Pain in the neck! It wasn't that I didn't have enough to say, but it was the way I said it. As everybody knows, I'm country. I think country, I talk country, I act country and I write country. I do have some higher schooling, however I am that I am. Just telling it like it is. Oh, by the way, you get a definite "thumbs up" for every story that I've read.

Bcmech1 Loc: Clinton Wisconsin

Robert J Samples wrote:

When you live in the country, at least in Texas, anything you haven’t already heard is NEWS! This was all true all my life with the Saint Jo, TX Tribune. Now I’ve subscribed to the Houston Chronicle, Dallas Morning News, McAllen Monitor and probably others, but Saint Jo Tribune is at the top simply because I could always keep up with my friends, classmates, and relatives in the obituary column.

Now, as a kid I did not offer any advice or articles to the editor of the Tribune, I guess because I wasn’t knowledgeable enough, nor did I think about it. This did not mean I didn’t have an opinion, I usually did, but shy about expressing it.

But there was one thing that usually would occur in the summer every two or three years. Some mischievous country boys would take an inner tube from a truck tire, inflate it, and find a sandy portion on one of our roads. There they would slowly drag this big rubber tube across the road, then go back and wipe out all their tracks. Then they would call the editor of the Tribune report to him about this giant snake track they had seen! This innocent prank would build circulation!

Don’t get me wrong, we did have big snakes, but not gigantic rattlers.
About six feet was the usual maximum size for a mature rattler. Once, in my senior year in high school, I was late for a date and was speeding along close to 80 mph and up ahead was a humongous rattler crawling across the gravel road. Its body reached from the left car wheel track and beyond the other right tire path. It had to have been more than six feet!

I was going far too fast to lock my wheels to kill it. That was the normal method while driving. I stopped and backed up to where I thought it had entered the Johnson grass beside the road. I tossed rocks in trying to get it to rattle.

Either it was already too wounded to rattle or was smart enough to remain silent and I was already late for a date, so I didn’t waste any more time.
But by the time I got out of high school and a few more years under my belt, I would on occasion send a note to the editor suggesting some topic or a subject I thought he should address.
Where there was controversy, I would, if I had an opinion write to the editor. I did on several times when back home and when I met the editor would offer a verbal suggestion. Also, at times send him a story, unusually it was fiction, to amuse his readers. I regularly suggested he do a summer snake story to boost his circulation.

If you are a regular reader of Fishing Forum/Stages, you will know I cannot remain silent, but am willing to tell some yarn, or story. (If you would like to read one of my stories printed in the Tribune, go back and search for an article with the word, (Chernobyl) He responded by offering to sell the Tribune to me. There’s no way I would want to be saddled with a small-town newspaper. I could only imagine all the troubles I would get into and the troubles that might arise, including lynching and such. I would without much effort step on someone’s toes.
For instance, the last ‘dust up’ I can remember had to do with the electric windmills that were now scattered along the bluff a few miles out of town. The ‘antis’ were complaining about the ugly appearance of these windmills. There were several ‘Letters to the Editor’ complaining about them.

Finally, I wrote to the editor and suggested that for each complaint, he should determine whether they got royalties for these wind chargers, or not. I suggested he would not hear a peep from any landowner who was receiving royalties. I said ‘take a look’ at all the oil well pump jacks, they were equally ugly, but you don’t hear anyone who had an oil well complaining about them, nor would anyone with wind turbines!

Now, it isn’t because I would not want to live in my hometown. I would but under different conditions. My father was approached by Mr. Fields, the president of the local bank asking if he thought I might be willing to come back to Saint Jo and work in the bank? Dad said he didn’t think so, and never told me about it. I do not know what kind of salary package he had in mind but would have liked to have decided for myself.
I could not be too critical, because I know dad and Mr. Fields had prearranged the loans to pay for my college expenses. You don’t complain when people behind the scenes are working to help you. Just Sayin…RJS

When you live in the country, at least in Texas, a... (show quote)

Robert, I have a hard time picturing you being too shy to express your opinions. Good story though.

Mauwehu Loc: Norwalk Ct

Passingbye wrote:

It's not the big snake's I could see going across the road that bothered me, but the one's around my lake house shore hidden in the tall grass in or laying on a rock by the waters be edge getting a drink that caught me by surprise.

Feel the same about the copperheads hiding in the rocks.

Passingbye Loc: Reidsville NC

Many times during crappie season which usually started in February in Texas and all the way up into early summer months, but I had my fishing pier all lighted up and would catch a basket full of crappie, drop them in my floating basket alongside my Pier, getting late I'll head to bed and come clean them in the mornings, I reach to grab the rope and pull it up and I'd find a basket full of water moccasins. they've killed every fish and as far as my experience I believe what a moskins are far more aggressive and territorial. I often wadded around the shallow parts of the cove plum full Crappie and have water moccasins trying to chase me away. There were certain times they were so aggressive that I kept a 22 pistol loaded with snake shot close at hand.

GlsJr40 Loc: Dallas, Tx.

Passingbye wrote:

Many times during crappie season which usually sta... (show quote)

I agree with you Passingbye. I won't bore y'all with all the details, but having always living in moccasin domain, I've met up with several VERY aggressive moccasins over time. Fortunately I haven't had to deal with any rattlers personally.

Mauwehu Loc: Norwalk Ct

Passingbye wrote:

Many times during crappie season which usually sta... (show quote)

What is and can you buy snake shot or do you have to make it yourself.

Chuckay Loc: Central Florida

Mauwehu wrote:

What is and can you buy snake shot or do you have to make it yourself.

I think he's talking about what we call rat shot it's a 22cal. with small pellets in it instead a lead bullet 😂 but that would just piss off a python that we have here🥴 that's why I carry a Colt Judge with #4 shot 👍👍

Mauwehu Loc: Norwalk Ct

Chuckay wrote:

I think he's talking about what we call rat shot it's a 22cal. with small pellets in it instead a lead bullet 😂 but that would just piss off a python that we have here🥴 that's why I carry a Colt Judge with #4 shot 👍👍

Thanks Chuckay. Yeah everything used to be bigger in Texas but maybe now it’s Florida.

Robert J Samples Loc: Round Rock, Texas

Nah! We will concede the big snakes to Florida! Nobody else wants that dubious privilege. Just Sayin...RJS

Chuckay Loc: Central Florida

Robert J Samples wrote:

Nah! We will concede the big snakes to Florida! Nobody else wants that dubious privilege. Just Sayin...RJS

Mr. Robert, we sure don't want them either but looks like they are here.
What gets me is they know that they come from people buying them for pets and getting too big and they turn them loose but yet we still sell them in pet stores what's wrong with that situation 🥴

Passingbye Loc: Reidsville NC

Mauwehu wrote:

What is and can you buy snake shot or do you have to make it yourself.

Buy them at Walmart, Dick's, Granger outdoors usually for 22cal long but with a wax plastic wadding that shoots 8 to 10 BB sized shot pellets

Mauwehu Loc: Norwalk Ct

Passingbye wrote:

Buy them at Walmart, Dick's, Granger outdoors usually for 22cal long but with a wax plastic wadding that shoots 8 to 10 BB sized shot pellets

Thanks PB.