As a kid fishing the murky backwater swamps of Lake Charles, La., Charlie Joiner honed toughness and perseverance one set of bite marks at a time.
Joiner and other boys hunted tasty blue perch, routinely crossing painful paths with water moccasins lurking along the Gulf Coast. A strike would send Joiner sprinting to the area’s ranger station for anti-venom.
Soon he’d be back on the water, fishing again.
“I was bit so many times, I got immune to them,” Joiner said. “My father used to get bit a lot. He told me, you get bit enough, you become immune to it.