Capturing a snake with PVC and a bag - GIF

[desbromilow]

If your interested: Snake Sack - Bag for Snakes

I am a licensed snake catcher in Western Australia (yeah - THAT Australia) and I use tongs, hook, bag for most of my catching. My bag though has a frame to hold the mouth of the bag open, the bag is a dark colour (black), and has loops sewn in at the bottom corners, and a tie at the top. The frame means the bag edge is held hard against the ground and the dark colour makes the open bag look like a hole to the snake (a place of refuge from the big scary snake catching guy next to it) - the handle of the bag is about 1m long (just over 3 feet) and when I made mine, I made the handle foldable for storage.
In use the snake will often go into the bag with little encouragement, and once "mostly in" I lift the frame up so the snake goes into the bottom of the bag (bag is about 1.2m (4') deep, and then using my hook, I catch the loop on the bottom and give the bag a flick to start it spinning to twist the top shut. I then rest the bag bottom on the ground, and hook the handle under my arm pit as I tie the top shut using the ties.
The whole thing is then lowered into a plastic rubbish bin for transport to the release location.
Release is done by ensuring the bag is suspended and twisted, the ties are then undone, and the bag is lifted by the handle so the mouth is upwards but inclined (stops light pouring in the open mouth) and the bag is left to "untwist" itself. the bag is then lowered to the ground, and the mouth pointing away from me with the bag bottom on my side of the mouth. I then use my hook to pick up one or both loops and lift the bag bottom up whilst keeping the mouth on the ground - the snake will slide out to the ground with the bag between me and the snake. - usually a tap on the tail from the hook and the snake will move away from me and into the bush at the release site.

If there is interest, I can take some photos of my snake catching gear - but I will never encourage people (especially in Australia) to attempt catching snakes without proper training.