Wildlife officials in Tennessee posted an odd warning over the weekend for anglers to look before sticking their fingers into a fish’s mouth.
Turns out one man recently caught a fish that had a snake stuck in its throat, according to the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency.
Written content by Mark Price via The Charlotte Observer
“It’s almost Halloween and it looks like the year 2020 is playing tricks on us again,” the agency wrote Saturday on Facebook. “Be careful when you reach your hand in a fish’s mouth! You never know what might be in there.”
The post included a photo showing a snake clearly visible deep in the fish’s throat.
Angler Dan Boudrie told McClatchy News he thinks the fish ate the snake just before he caught it Oct. 11 at a private fishing spot near Paris, Tennessee.
“The head was looking at me right before I took this picture. I wondered how I would explain to an ER doc that I got bit by a snake from putting my fingers in a fish’s mouth,” Boudrie said in the post.
“It initially shocked me, since I am new to Tennessee and not real familiar with the look of venomous species here. I was very careful not to put my fingers in its mouth,” he told McClatchy News.
The snake was not venomous. It was identified as a water snake, a species that can grow to a rather intimidating 4.5 feet, the Animal Diversity Web at the University of Michigan reports.
The Facebook post drew hundreds of shares and comments, including some who noted the fish must have been ravenous if it bit at a lure after eating a snake.
“Well gluttony is a deadly sin after all!” one commenter wrote.
“If I had lipped the fish and then saw the snake, I probably would have thrown the fish, snake and rod and reel across the lake! No pictures!” another posted. Read more from The Charlotte Observer.
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