When I was 15 I was hiking along the Escalante river in Utah with a group in a survival camp. We decided to try and fortify our rations with some fish out of the river, so I fashioned a spear out of a cottonwood branch, and split the end so that it made a three pronged fork. I then went wading into the river looking for fish. After standing still for a very long time, I finally saw a decent sized catfish passing in front of me. I managed to stick it with the spear, and then held it to the bottom while it thrashed around and I could reach down and grab it. Once I had the fish in hand I backed up onto the bank while heralding my triumph to my fellow campers. Once safely on the bank I heard something that sounded like a person walking through the tall grass- I looked down and saw a nice sized rattler about 3 feet to my left. I jumped about 10 feet, and damned near pissed my pants! I had never seen a rattle snake, nor did I really want to see one that was so pissed off. So I am standing there babbling, and one of our guides takes my trident off me walks up to the snake and jams it right through the body just behind it's head.
He then looks over at me and says (just like Crocodile Dundee) "Snakes is good eatin".
I can tell you- they taste like chicken. I prefer chicken.
P