Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I caught htis big (girl?) yesterday at a lake when me and my dad were fishing. What is the record on midlands? She is massive. She is by far the biggest one I have caught and you can't realy tell much by the pic. She was a little aggro when I pulled her out of the water, but not to bad. Her left eye looks liek she is about to go thru shed but here other eye looks normal. Eye infection? If so what could I do about it? She has a few cuts and stuff on her probably froma bird but is healthy other wise. After she is settled in and feedign I will get a measurment of her. Oh, and that is a quarter beside her for size comparison.

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Justin

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Justin

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Justin

Very nice snake Justin - probably a big female and maybe already gravid. Your posts remind me of some of thrill I had catching northerns when your age. I remember a huge female that I stalked for a long time - stepping very slowly through a pond with just my head above water. When I finally got out to the log she was sunning on I could barely touch the bottom so I had to get almost directly under her and grab up and over the log. I did a rough measurement in the field - using my body as a measuring stick. When I got home and looked it up she was bigger than what Conant listed as the record!

I wish I had a resource like Kingsnake when I was your age. We really learned the hard way - through trial and error. Among the important lessons I learned the most important is simple: Don't bring home more than you can properly care for. My enthusiasm upon finding and catching often meant I brought stuff home I didn't have a lot of time for. I would have been much better off to just limit my self to a few rather than all as would of the snakes!

PS: The brown water below is a great looking snake too - let us know how it goes with that one. Watch out for mites, mouth flukes and other trouble. I once had a wild caught green that was friendly, even lethargic - but seemed to react aggressively to handling. It would eat but always regurgitated. She died after a few weeks. I performed an crude necropsy and found she had ingested a branchy twig that had lodged in her stomach.

Good luck with yours! Keep the pictures coming.

I hate mites with a passion!! I have had 2 outbreaks. Only 2. Provent a mite owrks realy well, and water snakes don't seem as prone to having them as other snakes. Probably form being in the water more. I hate those internal parasites too. I worm all of my w/c snakes as soon as I get them set up. I have not had a big problem with them but they are no good too. That is one reason I have switched to rodents.
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Justin