Where is this lake located? The right quarter of the state will do. The odds are that the snakes are nonvenomous water snakes, but without the location we can't say anything definite.

If you don't want to give the location, then go to the public library, find a good reptile field guide, and check to see whether your friend lives inside the range of the cottonmouth, Agkistrodon piscivorous. If he's outside that range, then what he's got are nonvenomous water snakes, and he doesn't have to worry about them.

Paul Hollander

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