I agree. Kept a bunch of snakes when I was a kid. Most became docile to handling rather quickly and didn't mind being picked up after the first few times of being handled. But water snakes were always wild for the first five minutes of handling no matter how many times you handled them.

When I got my first drivers license and the wonderful freedom of the road I would make regular trips to a nearby swampy area to collect snakes and sell them to a local "snake farm". They had a visitor's area that they charged admission to, but also bought snakes to feed to other snakes and/or sell to collectors, labs, schools, etc. The funny thing was, they bought long skinny snakes like Garters, Ribbons and Runners by the pound, and short or fat and heavy snakes like Cottonmouths by the foot.

By accident, we discovered a very effective way to trap water snakes and Cottonmouths. One of my friends had a water snake enter a fish basket made from chicken wire and swallow a small bluegill. With the bump from the fish in it's belly, the snake could not get back out through the wire mesh. After seeing that, we made a bunch of little chicken wire tubes about a two feet long and six inches in diameter, with the ends closed flat and tied with string. Put a small bluegill in the basket, leave it overnight along the shoreline in a few inches of water, and collect your snake the next day.