I know it’s been talked about before on here; but I have a question for the otter Gurus . Since around here, the fish go upstream in the early spring, and tend to go back downstream to deep water in the fall, I assume the otters follow the fish and do the same thing. Would I be correct in that assumption? I have never tried to otter trap on purpose, as we have not had many at all until the last couple of years around close to where I am. Help a blind hog find an acorn guys. Thanks in advance!
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Yes and no.
I’m not a “guru” but hear goes
Females raise pups up in the head waters good easy hunting, ponds, marshes,trickles,beaver flows and very stable water make it very good for pup rearing. As food dwindles and cover dies pups get bigger they cover more ground and start to travel. They will still run the the headwaters all winter they go to ponds every few weeks up to a month apart and they will cover a long distance of dry hay field to get to a good pond. “check eny you have permission on” they follow fish yes but seldom spend more then a couple days on a source.
In late summer and fall my otter gorge on crawdads pretty much all they eat for a few months.
As a side note I know everybody that has them in a fish pond believe they will wipe their fish out and I’ve killed otter in fish ponds for over 10 years in 7 different county’s and I’ve yet to seen a pond “emptied” by otter. What you will find is that they won’t lay on a pond for a week they hit them most times 1 day and tear out. Also like I said sometimes it will be 4 weeks between visits I believe that God engineered them to range far and wide because there such killers they have to take in a bunch of ground.
I will also note that I dont see otter go on killing sprees unless the pond is just stuffed full of fish again I believe Devine engineering.
Colt
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I’m a poor example of a water trapper but about every farm pond I’ve ever trapped had otter sign galore but I am notoriously a day late and a dollar short.
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“A day late” is my story as well… lol. The day I roll up the grass is wet where they just come up out of the water and the poop looks like snot. I set it up and the sign starts to age, nothing fresh gets dropped and I get frustrated. Seems like it happens like that to me all the time.
Yep gotta tough it out about 4 weeks sometimes when the sign is that fresh.
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You ever see them eat grass carp
Especially the big ones
They seem to target them a lot of times
Yes carp buffalo all of it.
I found about an 80 pound buff they killed and drug up on a toilet once it was the biggest I’ve ever seen in my life.
Colt
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Otter, cats and turkeys will teach you to be patient.
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