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Hunt for a king

Posted: June 29th, 2017, 9:51 am
by 46mask46
Me and my brother have been going out a couple nights a week and looking for snakes but have had little success. We've seen lots of diamondbacks but haven't managed to find a king snake yet. We live in Gilbert and have been going to fountain hills, Santan, and usery. Any tips on good times/ roads/ conditions to come across a king?

Re: Hunt for a king

Posted: June 29th, 2017, 2:36 pm
by Fieldherper
Search near water. June is brutal in AZ. Best to wait til monsoons start in a month or two.

FH

Re: Hunt for a king

Posted: June 29th, 2017, 3:59 pm
by 46mask46
Thanks, I think I might know of some decent places

Re: Hunt for a king

Posted: June 30th, 2017, 9:43 am
by Bryan Hamilton
Stick with it. Especially when the monsoon arrives. In my experience kings in the desert are spotty, compared to the more common snakes.

Keep it up!

Re: Hunt for a king

Posted: July 1st, 2017, 8:09 pm
by John Martin
Monsoon season is definitely key :thumb: .

Re: Hunt for a king

Posted: July 2nd, 2017, 10:40 am
by Brian Hubbs
There's a good book that would tell you everything you want to know about how to find a king. The guy who wrote it knows a lot about the subject.

Image Image

Re: Hunt for a king

Posted: July 9th, 2017, 9:41 am
by SurfinHerp
Such a good book!

Re: Hunt for a king

Posted: July 9th, 2017, 10:49 am
by RenoBart
SurfinHerp wrote:Such a good book!
And man, does it smell good!!

Bart

Re: Hunt for a king

Posted: July 9th, 2017, 9:41 pm
by Brian Hubbs
RenoBart wrote:
SurfinHerp wrote:Such a good book!
And man, does it smell good!!

Bart
:lol: :lol: :lol:

Re: Hunt for a king

Posted: July 13th, 2017, 11:22 pm
by milkmanpec
Wouldn't know if the book is a good one. I'm an Easterner and don't buy books, or read for that matter?

Re: Hunt for a king

Posted: July 14th, 2017, 8:53 am
by Brian Hubbs
milkmanpec wrote:Wouldn't know if the book is a good one. I'm an Easterner and don't buy books, or read for that matter?
That's what I've been saying about Easterners for years... :lol: Welcome back to the forum Paul...
For those who don't know...Paul is one of my good friends and owns ALL my books. I don't know if he reads them, but he owns them... :thumb:

Re: Hunt for a king

Posted: July 14th, 2017, 9:03 am
by RenoBart
Paul, you're in Reno? There's no milks here!

Re: Hunt for a king

Posted: July 18th, 2017, 1:10 am
by 46mask46
Thanks for the tips! After over a dozen diamondbacks, a long nose, some garters, some coachwhips, and a night snake I finally found my first kingsnake. A beautiful 4 foot+ Cali prowling the desert prior to a monsoon storm.

Re: Hunt for a king

Posted: July 18th, 2017, 8:44 am
by RenoBart
46mask46 wrote:Thanks for the tips! After over a dozen diamondbacks, a long nose, some garters, some coachwhips, and a night snake I finally found my first kingsnake. A beautiful 4 foot+ Cali prowling the desert prior to a monsoon storm.
Pics or it didn't happen. :)

Re: Hunt for a king

Posted: July 18th, 2017, 10:28 am
by Zach_Lim
46mask46 wrote:Thanks for the tips! After over a dozen diamondbacks, a long nose, some garters, some coachwhips, and a night snake I finally found my first kingsnake. A beautiful 4 foot+ Cali prowling the desert prior to a monsoon storm.
Some (aka me) would say you were already killing the game with all those other species! Congrats on the king.

Re: Hunt for a king

Posted: July 18th, 2017, 10:59 am
by 46mask46
RenoBart wrote:
46mask46 wrote:Thanks for the tips! After over a dozen diamondbacks, a long nose, some garters, some coachwhips, and a night snake I finally found my first kingsnake. A beautiful 4 foot+ Cali prowling the desert prior to a monsoon storm.
Pics or it didn't happen. :)
I'm gonna be honest I can't figure out how to post an image :lol:

Re: Hunt for a king

Posted: July 18th, 2017, 11:03 am
by Jimi
Thanks for the tips! After over a dozen diamondbacks, a long nose, some garters, some coachwhips, and a night snake I finally found my first kingsnake. A beautiful 4 foot+ Cali prowling the desert prior to a monsoon storm.
It's funny what you find and what you don't find when you go out. There's a huge variance, or to put it another way, not much predictive ability in cruising. I for example cannot seem to buy a garter in AZ, other than the occasional blackneck. Others report checkereds can be dirt common...for them anyway. Ha ha, we've all got our little white whales. Silly or no.

Congrats on your king. Hopefully now they come regularly for you.

(Getting Hubbs' book is still a good idea.)

cheers

Re: Hunt for a king

Posted: July 18th, 2017, 5:38 pm
by Brian Hubbs
46mask46 wrote:
RenoBart wrote:
46mask46 wrote:Thanks for the tips! After over a dozen diamondbacks, a long nose, some garters, some coachwhips, and a night snake I finally found my first kingsnake. A beautiful 4 foot+ Cali prowling the desert prior to a monsoon storm.
Pics or it didn't happen. :)
I'm gonna be honest I can't figure out how to post an image :lol:
Open a flickr acct. Put the pic in flickr, then copy the code for sharing the pic and paste the code in a reply here.

Re: Hunt for a king

Posted: July 19th, 2017, 10:23 am
by 46mask46
Open a flickr acct. Put the pic in flickr, then copy the code for sharing the pic and paste the code in a reply here.[/quote]
https://www.flickr.com/photos/152874223 ... ed-public/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/152874223 ... ed-public/

Re: Hunt for a king

Posted: July 24th, 2017, 8:19 pm
by SurfinHerp
Congrats man!
That's a really nice king 8-)

Re: Hunt for a king

Posted: July 25th, 2017, 12:54 am
by Porter
46mask46 wrote:Open a flickr acct. Put the pic in flickr, then copy the code for sharing the pic and paste the code in a reply here.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/152874223 ... ed-public/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/152874223 ... ed-public/[/quote]

Wow... lol this is tripping me out. I literally just was telling Brian about a white and black "looking" golden brown kingsnake that I found in Sutter county probably about 6 yrs ago (mine was a lot uglier with wider white-ish bands lol). Looked very similar to this with a toasted dorsal! Where are you now, in the East somewhere? Brian, what do you call this if it were in my area?
Jimi wrote:
Thanks for the tips! After over a dozen diamondbacks, a long nose, some garters, some coachwhips, and a night snake I finally found my first kingsnake. A beautiful 4 foot+ Cali prowling the desert prior to a monsoon storm.
It's funny what you find and what you don't find when you go out. There's a huge variance, or to put it another way, not much predictive ability in cruising. I for example cannot seem to buy a garter in AZ, other than the occasional blackneck. Others report checkereds can be dirt common...for them anyway. Ha ha, we've all got our little white whales. Silly or no.

Congrats on your king. Hopefully now they come regularly for you.

(Getting Hubbs' book is still a good idea.)

cheers
Different weather situations bring out different snakes... I knew exactly what kind of snake I would find last night if I found one. Eventually you'll get a feel for the weather and you'll be in a drive thru at taco bell, worse time of year, and feel and smell a quality of the air and remember ...then find yourself cruising for 10 minutes and pulling a rabbit out of a hat. Today was garters. 5 days ago 2 gopher snakes 5 minutes apart. Hard windows to hit in July!

Also...Every whale has it's own favorite part of the ocean ;) Don't expect it to come to you.

Re: Hunt for a king

Posted: July 25th, 2017, 9:01 am
by Brian Hubbs
this is how it should have looked if you copied the code from the right place... :lol: YOU copied the code from the address at the top of the page...but don't worry, just click on all the stuff by your photos in flickr until you figure out what it all does...you'll get it..

Image

Re: Hunt for a king

Posted: July 25th, 2017, 11:13 am
by Jimi
Different weather situations bring out different snakes... I knew exactly what kind of snake I would find last night if I found one. Eventually you'll get a feel for the weather and you'll be in a drive thru at taco bell, worse time of year, and feel and smell a quality of the air and remember ...then find yourself cruising for 10 minutes and pulling a rabbit out of a hat. Today was garters. 5 days ago 2 gopher snakes 5 minutes apart. Hard windows to hit in July!

Also...Every whale has it's own favorite part of the ocean ;) Don't expect it to come to you.
I won't be at Taco Bell (maybe Roberto's or Gilberto's etc), but otherwise, I'm following you. I seriously burned myself out at TB about 20 years ago. Can't go back. Still. Kinda funny.

One of the features of my life has been a lot of moving and a lot of travel - often with the purpose of herping. I'm not a guy who has lived in one place for a very very long time, and just herped the bejeezus out of that local spot. With that moving it's harder to develop "the magic formula" for any one spot, or a specific critter in that spot. OTOH there are definitely some pretty universal qualities that emerge from broad experience, things that transfer from place to place. Qualities in the air or whatever. Things that correlate with success and pleasure and excitement, in many many places, times, environments etc.

Today for example is super overcast and relatively cool and muggy (probably mid 80s F and RH about 50% right now). It just feels like I ought to get out herping late this afternoon and into the evening. Up here, realistically probably next month would be better than this month, but still - right f*cking NOW it just feels good for it. It's kind of a weird summer up here - hot as hell for one thing. Not a lot of night-time drop. Blazing days. Not something to get me excited about herping locally. The good monsoon pulses, like this week, do help some...for my attitude anyway - might not be enough to get the snakes out yet.

I'll be down there in about a month (Sta Cruz Co). Ought to give you a jingle. Might do just that.

cheers

Re: Hunt for a king

Posted: July 26th, 2017, 10:35 am
by Porter
Jimi wrote:
I won't be at Taco Bell (maybe Roberto's or Gilberto's etc), but otherwise, I'm following you. I seriously burned myself out at TB about 20 years ago. Can't go back. Still. Kinda funny.

One of the features of my life has been a lot of moving and a lot of travel - often with the purpose of herping. I'm not a guy who has lived in one place for a very very long time, and just herped the bejeezus out of that local spot. With that moving it's harder to develop "the magic formula" for any one spot, or a specific critter in that spot. OTOH there are definitely some pretty universal qualities that emerge from broad experience, things that transfer from place to place. Qualities in the air or whatever. Things that correlate with success and pleasure and excitement, in many many places, times, environments etc.

Today for example is super overcast and relatively cool and muggy (probably mid 80s F and RH about 50% right now). It just feels like I ought to get out herping late this afternoon and into the evening. Up here, realistically probably next month would be better than this month, but still - right f*cking NOW it just feels good for it. It's kind of a weird summer up here - hot as hell for one thing. Not a lot of night-time drop. Blazing days. Not something to get me excited about herping locally. The good monsoon pulses, like this week, do help some...for my attitude anyway - might not be enough to get the snakes out yet.

I'll be down there in about a month (Sta Cruz Co). Ought to give you a jingle. Might do just that.

cheers
Oh man, you're missing out! They have a whole new menu of ground up cow hooves, molars and gut matter swept up off the floor boiled, drained and then soaked in spice juice to make taste like meat again :thumb: I'm sure there's gotta be something on that menu you'd find fit for consumption :lol:

Yeah, home town stuff is pretty easy. Sacramento area (which I include davis, folsom, and Roseville surrounding areas in that mix) can be kinda tricky. We don't get that herping weather like the bay area. I think the most productive night on the best road out here (that I know of) has only been 11 snakes. All gopher snakes. As far as variety, I did pull off a 4 or 5 buzztail, 1 gopher snake, 2 kingsnake night in Folsom one year...and maybe I saw a garter that night too, but not sure. I really don't keep track of stuff like that. But you could cruise a bay area-ish road and get 30 snakes easy on a mediocre night due to the quality of air coming in from the ocean. A lot of that dies out before we get it here in Sac unless it's aggressive enough to push it's way in and/or pass through to the sierras. By yeah road cruising Sac sucks but if you go during the right windows, you can be successful with small scale results.

If you're gonna be in Santa Cruise, I suggest you hit up Chad Lane! I know he's one for showing people around and would be glad to. If you're gonna cruise with me, you gotta supply the vehicle and I'll give ya gas money. That's the Porter deal :beer: But, Sacramento is only gonna get worse for cruising until the babes hot the road once the weather cools off and I wouldn't expect to find more than 2 -3 snakes on a good night (average). Much better off in the bay because you can find everything out there on one road, all together, plus a few more species. Where here, you gotta drive 30 minute away for rattles... gophers an hour from there...kings and gophers 20 minutes from there. You gotta pick one and forget the rest. :sleep: borrrrriiiinnnnggggg... but yeah

Yeah weather has been very unique in pattern this year. That's why as I'm sitting waiting for some tasty dead horse meal... I smell the air and... Ohhhhhhhh, reeeaaaallllyyyy..?? It's damn kingsnake weather in July...hmmmmm? So, out I go and sure enough, banana and brown king. Beautiful snake! But only one and I would guess only an hour, of on the move road crossing time. But that's just my take... I've never talked to other Sacramento herpers. But this weather sure has created some unique situations!



46mask46 wrote:Open a flickr acct. Put the pic in flickr, then copy the code for sharing the pic and paste the code in a reply here.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/152874223 ... ed-public/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/152874223 ... ed-public/[/quote]
Brian Hubbs wrote:this is how it should have looked if you copied the code from the right place... :lol: YOU copied the code from the address at the top of the page...but don't worry, just click on all the stuff by your photos in flickr until you figure out what it all does...you'll get it..
Brians busy doing something (not responding to me on facebook. Probably gone fishi...herping)... or he's avoiding my question :lol: But I think it would or shold be a BB of some kind (my area)and as a matter of fact... you need to choose the BB code in order to make your picture appear on the forum. How you get to this part, you'll have to do some clicking around in the bottom right corner of you photo to figure out ;)

ImageScreenshot (150) by California Reptile & Amphibian Appreciation, on Flickr

Re: Hunt for a king

Posted: July 26th, 2017, 11:04 am
by Porter
Jimi wrote: I'll be down there in about a month (Sta Cruz Co). Ought to give you a jingle. Might do just that.

cheers
also... I remember Brian mentioning that there are some people hiding using other accounts and what not...experienced herpers or something like that. Or at least he mentioned one guy recently. I'm not Scott Waters (only saying his name because he is based in the same area, well known, and expert herper) :lol: Im really this one dude named Porter guy... I don't know you and you don't have my number. Just a heads up :lol: I'm really the guy everyone loves to hate and I'm not an alternate personality. I did make one other profile for my The Croaking Frog project that had a username of The Singing Frog but I decided to just upload the cartoon to my usual profile instead. Originally it would have been nice to have it as a separate entity for the use of only the cartoon series, but I realized that would just give the herp community another reason to not like me and probably provoke more multiple profile BS. So yeah... :thumb: lol I'm pretty much the guy who it's cool to not like so, GET WITH THE PROGRAM!! :lol: :lol:

Re: Hunt for a king

Posted: July 26th, 2017, 11:13 am
by Porter
See, this was the only thing I ever posted from that other username... but again, I don't think its good to have more than one account. AND this is the only other one I've ever had on here or have now. Originally I was gonna quit field herping and only do the cartoon because of the rep I've been given (or built myself) then I decided I like field herping too much and I'll just keep the porter profile. Then I was gonna keep both and just do the cartoon on the The Singing Frog profile. But, yeah...The Singing Frog has CROAKED and now your just stuck with porter :lol: 8-)

http://www.fieldherpforum.com/forum/vie ... nging+frog

Re: Hunt for a king

Posted: August 6th, 2017, 12:12 pm
by 46mask46
#2