Snake story: A few years ago I was trout fishing on the south fork of the Kern river in the Sierra Nevada. I was fly fishing up stream and wading in the stream, which was only 15 feet wide. I approched a section where there was a high bank on my left side with grass about 2 feet tall. All of a sudden a rattle snake stuck it's head up out of the grass about 2 feet from my face. I lurched backwards and landed on my back in the middle of the stream. About a half hour later, a rattler swam across the stream about 20 yards ahead. That was it. I got on the trail and headed back to camp. On the way I encountered 2 "locals" and they said it was a bad year for rattlers. They had 3 at one time on sticks before they could kill them. After that, I fished near camp!
