Every year in the springtime, my husband Frank and I, would head up to the Carolina's for a get together with other like-mined snake hunters. We would stay at a motel where the owner knew of our activities yet keep it low profile, by giving us rooms on the far side of the building.
Frank would meet with two or more friends he had known for years and they would plan where to go each day. The wife's would stay behind and enjoy each others company and go shopping.
The most interesting part of that time together was when the men returned to the motel with their catch. For the bags or pillow cases, were filled with snakes and as they carried them into the motel room, some unknowing people may have thought them to be bank robbers carrying in the loot.
Each days catch was brought out and discussed about where and how, and why, and any near misses. The poisonous snakes were kept in padlocked wooden boxes for public safety, as required by law.
All types of snakes were caught, from copperheads and eastern diamondback rattlesnakes, canebreaker rattlesnakes and less harmful non-poisenous snakes like corn snakes and hognose, king snakes and garter and water snakes.
Some were kept to sell, but many were returned close to where they were found. It was seeing who caught the most and the different kinds, and the stories and memories from years past shared and pasted around. It was a real adventure and great way to have a vacation that paid for it's self. To do this it might be said, you need to have the proper yearly permits, for the State you live in, as well as, any other State you wish to visit. That way you are legal in the eyes of the law and know each State's laws concerning the collection of snakes. If snakehunting is a hobby of yours there are two good books I know of, one is called Snake Hunting the Carolina Tin Fields by John Kemnitzer Jr. and Gone Snake Hunting by Frank Weed.
