help identify pls

[Waffles13ilj]

Hi,
We found this little guy while weed-eating. If you have an idea what species it may be please let me know. We are in south louisiana and usually just have garter snakes and rat snakes. I looked in my field guide and it looks like he may just be a banded water snake, which is usually mistaken for a cottonmouth. Any help is greatly appreciated and I wasnt sure where to post so sorry if this is the wrong forum.
Thank you so much!!!!!

[Neal]

Doesn't look like a cottonmouth, then again the patterns have variation from both that and the banded water snake. It's hard to differ from pictures, but if I had the snake in front of me I could tell you positively. I'm still almost positive that it isn't a cottonmouth though because of the jaw structure.

[Neal]

Yep, it's definately a banded water snake.

[zackw419]

Yep, there harmless. Catch them frequently.