There are fishing trips that end with a good story, and then there are fishing trips that sound as if they were written by someone having a nightmare.
In this 1913 newspaper report, George Enser of Piedmont, West Virginia, set out for a quiet morning of trout fishing near Mountaindale. Instead, he allegedly found himself wrapped up in more than a dozen snakes, each several feet long, binding his arms, hands, and feet. With few options left, Enser made a desperate choice: he rolled straight into his breakfast fire.
What followed was a painful but effective escape. There was burning clothes, sizzling snakes, and a frantic plunge into the trout stream to put himself out.
Whether read as a tall tale, a terrifying wilderness mishap, or one of the strangest fishing stories ever printed, this little report from 1913 certainly knows how to make a quiet morning by the creek sound anything but peaceful.
Entwined by Snakes, Rolls Into Fire — Freed
PIEDMONT, W. Va. — While trout fishing in a mountain stream near Mountaindale, George Enser, a well known business man of this city, was attacked by snakes, and before he could beat them off, the reptiles had entwined themselves about him, binding his arms, hands, and feet.
The snakes, over a dozen in number, measured from four to six feet in length.
Enser had the presence of mind to roll down the hill into a fire that e had built to warm his breakfast. His clothing caught fire and the snakes, scorched and sizzling, untwined from his body and escaped.
Enser, though badly burned, ran to the trout stream and threw himself into the water, extinguishing his burning clothing.
His body, arms and face were severely burned.
Source: The Washington Times. Washington D.C. June 29, 1913.
