Jimmy Nichols, founder of Grab U One Outfitters, is gearing up for the group's 17th annual Snake Grabbing Rodeo at Lake Washington, promising music, food and snake-handling thrills to benefit a U.S. Marine veteran and a young girl with a rare condition.
Event Details
The snake rodeo is set for June 4-6 at Roy's Store on Lake Washington in Washington County. Five bands will perform over three nights, including Good Hope on Thursday, Hurricane and Slow Hand Band — a Conway Twitty tribute — on Friday, and Jason Fertizzi's Dirt Road Jam Band with The Smoke on Saturday. Nichols said food vendors and snake-catching action will draw crowds, with all proceeds benefiting a U.S. Marine veteran needing a modular home and 2-year-old Salem Bennett, who faces multiple surgeries for arthrogryposis.
How It Started
Nichols grew up on a Scott County farm, where neighbors knew him as the “local snake man” who would come remove reptiles from houses and barns even as a kid. On a long-ago fishing trip to Louisiana’s Lake St. John, he grabbed what he knew was a harmless diamondback water snake off a cypress limb, then faked a cottonmouth bite so convincingly that an older fisherman nearly had “two heart attacks and a stroke” trying to race him to shore in a slow boat. Not long after a stern encounter with a Louisiana game warden, Nichols and his buddies shifted their trips to Lake Washington, where curious boaters began following them around snapping photos as they caught snakes and released them back into the water.
From Viral Video to TV
A home video of their antics, uploaded to YouTube only because a DVD burner failed, drew about 400,000 views overnight and brought calls from major media outlets. Nichols was soon talking snake grabbing on Fox News with Megyn Kelly and Bill Hemmer, and he and his crew went on to film a 36-episode series for CMT Canada on Lake Washington after selling about 50,000 DVDs in mom-and-pop stores around Mississippi. The attention even brought complaints from PETA accusing the crew of causing “mental distress” to snakes, a charge Nichols shrugs off by noting that most people around the lake cause the reptiles “permanent distress” instead.
Rodeo Roots and Local Ties
Nichols also spent years riding bulls and fighting them as a rodeo clown, a career he blames for his limp and one he thought he’d left behind until Roy’s Store owner Ricky Jones and Deep South Rodeo coaxed him back into the arena this year. He first met Jones on Lake Washington decades ago while working narcotics; on one trip he dropped his wallet — cash, driver’s license and badge — straight to the lake bottom, where he jokes it still rests today. When Jones later bought Roy’s Store, he pushed to build local support after noticing the parking lot was full of out-of-town tags but almost none from Washington County, a campaign Nichols credits with doubling the event’s crowds in recent years.
Proven Impact
Past events have delivered big: $30,000 to injured trooper J.J. Bailey, $55,000 to officer John Michael Merchant, over $100,000 to cancer survivor Hunter Burkhalter, and $110,000 each to Piper Moon and Manny Smith last year. Crowds have doubled recently, thanks to local promotion by Roy's Store owner Ricky Jones.
Nichols, who will clown at a related Deep South Rodeo on May 15-16 at the same site, called on Washington County residents to join the effort. "We've been doing it for 17 years right here," he said.
