24hourcampfire.com
24hourcampfire.com
Previous Thread
Next Thread
Print Thread
Hop To
Page 1 of 2 1 2
Joined: Nov 2012
Posts: 4,333
Campfire Tracker
OP Offline
Campfire Tracker
Joined: Nov 2012
Posts: 4,333
Got issued a permit to remove a few problem otters. Going to be focusing on bodygrippers and blind sets. They really do a number on our fish. Valsdad knows all about it I am sure.

BP-B2

Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 1,040
R
Campfire Regular
Offline
Campfire Regular
R
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 1,040
This for yourself or a paid job? Are you experienced dealing with otters?

I have always trapped them with blind sets. Just picked up a few here and there. The first one I trapped was in a foothold set for beaver on a long chain. He was huge, I didn't weigh him but must have been approaching 30#. It was on a beaver crawl out where there was not enough water to drown. It was literally the strangest trapping scenario I've ever seen. It was a small creek turned into a swamp by the beavers clogging a cluvert. very Shallow in most places around the edge. They a bank den about 20 yards from this crawl out which led to a massive pile of mud about 10-15' out of the water. It was 15' or so across and 6-7' high. I figured they had no place to get rid of the debris from excavating the den, and so hauled it up on the bank into this massive pile. Never heard of anything like that though. I set a 750 out a couple feet and used sticks to make him put his feet down. expected a beaver but caught the otter. I've caught them on pull outs and bottom edge sets. They respond to shellfish oil trails if you need to go baited.



Joined: Mar 2003
Posts: 5,810
M
Campfire Tracker
Online Content
Campfire Tracker
M
Joined: Mar 2003
Posts: 5,810
Here’s a link to a thread on the subject. The dock set is one I’ve used a number of times. Very effective.

Otter


Chronographs, bore scopes and pattern boards have broke a lot of hearts.
Joined: Nov 2012
Posts: 4,333
Campfire Tracker
OP Offline
Campfire Tracker
Joined: Nov 2012
Posts: 4,333
Yeah I have caught quite a few of them. This is for work, we'll have to surrender them to fish and game. Was hoping they would leave our fish alone until the regular season opened up but they have been hammering our fish in the raceways. We put up an electric fence to help deter them but that only works so well. Crafty buggers. Lots of bear movement in the area we have the sets so we are especially cautious about how we set them.

Joined: Nov 2009
Posts: 15,852
Campfire Ranger
Offline
Campfire Ranger
Joined: Nov 2009
Posts: 15,852
I'm certainly no expert on catching otters, but I have caught a few. When I was helping a friend on predator control around his crawfish ponds, I just made blind sets in their trails where they were coming over the dams from one pond to another. #3 4 coil Bridger with crossed stakes driven in the ground held them or beavers without any problem. Ponds were not deep enough for drowning sets.


Old Turd- Deplorable- Unrepentant Murderer- Domestic Violent Extremist

Just "Campfire Riffraff and Trash"

This will be my last post! Flave 1/3/21
IC B2

Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 5,787
Campfire Tracker
Offline
Campfire Tracker
Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 5,787
Originally Posted by mart
Here’s a link to a thread on the subject. The dock set is one I’ve used a number of times. Very effective.

Otter


So, basically, that trap design drowns the otter?


Member of the Merry Band of turdlike People.



Joined: Nov 2012
Posts: 4,333
Campfire Tracker
OP Offline
Campfire Tracker
Joined: Nov 2012
Posts: 4,333
Got 3 so far smile

Joined: Nov 2012
Posts: 4,333
Campfire Tracker
OP Offline
Campfire Tracker
Joined: Nov 2012
Posts: 4,333
Can't use footholds, too many bears around. we put sticks over the bodygrippers so they will step over them

Joined: Nov 2016
Posts: 177
E
Campfire Member
Offline
Campfire Member
E
Joined: Nov 2016
Posts: 177
Originally Posted by FishinHank
Can't use footholds, too many bears around. we put sticks over the bodygrippers so they will step over them
You don't need a big foothold to trap otters though, right? How about a 1 3/4 or 2, 4-coiled, no offset?

Joined: Mar 2003
Posts: 5,810
M
Campfire Tracker
Online Content
Campfire Tracker
M
Joined: Mar 2003
Posts: 5,810
Originally Posted by Ready
Originally Posted by mart
Here’s a link to a thread on the subject. The dock set is one I’ve used a number of times. Very effective.

Otter


So, basically, that trap design drowns the otter?


The set design drowns the otter. There is enough weight on the trap chain to take the otter under water without enough chain to reach the bottom. Once they are in the trap they and they dive, the chain and weight come off the finishing nail. The weight does the rest. The guy who showed me the set said he has used five pound weights but that 10 worked better especially with a big otter. The idea is to get them under water without being able to get to the bottom where they could get traction or back to the dock for the same reason.


Chronographs, bore scopes and pattern boards have broke a lot of hearts.
IC B3

Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 12,781
Campfire Outfitter
Offline
Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 12,781
When we trapped them at the hatchery all we used was conibears on their travel trails between the river and the ponds. We were typically about 50/50 otter / beaver. Biggest otter was a big female that went 6’3” nose to tail (!!!).

Don’t know if it is legal where you are, but on my hatchery they typically swam up the tail race into the hatchery proper. I built a home made under water trap out of metal fence panels in a basic hoop net design. That put an end to it rather quickly.


Sic Semper Tyrannis
Joined: Nov 2014
Posts: 685
Campfire Regular
Online Content
Campfire Regular
Joined: Nov 2014
Posts: 685
I find they drown rather quickly when weighed down with an 180 gr .308 bullet.

Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 12,781
Campfire Outfitter
Offline
Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 12,781
Originally Posted by mag410
I find they drown rather quickly when weighed down with an 180 gr .308 bullet.


Shoot at a family group once and they’ll go nocturnal, leaving you with the mess to clean up in the morning.

Not that I would know about such things.


Sic Semper Tyrannis
Joined: Nov 2012
Posts: 4,333
Campfire Tracker
OP Offline
Campfire Tracker
Joined: Nov 2012
Posts: 4,333
We took a few of them out on our permit. Fish and game was happy to have them for their skinning class. Our trapping season opens up soon so we are trying to hold off until then to take any more.

Joined: Nov 2014
Posts: 685
Campfire Regular
Online Content
Campfire Regular
Joined: Nov 2014
Posts: 685
Originally Posted by Dutch
Originally Posted by mag410
I find they drown rather quickly when weighed down with an 180 gr .308 bullet.


Shoot at a family group once and they’ll go nocturnal, leaving you with the mess to clean up in the morning.

Not that I would know about such things.


Every year I usually get a pair move in in early November. I have a ladder stand on the upper end of my lake that overlooks the same den they all use. Otters and beavers are easy to hit when you shoot down on them. Not so easy at water level. Sometimes I get a lone mail in the spring or summer. They come to the dock to see what the commotion is when I feed my bluegills in the late afternoon. In Mississippi beavers and otters are considered nuisance and may be terminated with extreme prejudice.

Our deer season starts the Saturday before Thanksgiving which means it can be as early as the 17th or as late as the 25th. One of the late years I did not see the otters until the start of deer season. They had been having a feast. I found a pile of scales on the bank that I don't think would have fit in a 5 gallon bucket. sick

Our deer open Saturday, but it is going to be 72°, too hot to kill a deer, but not to hot for varmints.

Last edited by mag410; 11/19/20. Reason: grammer
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 22,846
Campfire Ranger
Online Content
Campfire Ranger
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 22,846
Originally Posted by mag410
[quote=Dutch] Sometimes I get a lone mail in the spring or summer.


pre-paid postage?

you really should edit for spelling, along with the 'grammer'.

Joined: Nov 2014
Posts: 685
Campfire Regular
Online Content
Campfire Regular
Joined: Nov 2014
Posts: 685
Originally Posted by huntsman22
Originally Posted by mag410
[quote=Dutch] Sometimes I get a lone mail in the spring or summer.


pre-paid postage?

you really should edit for spelling, along with the 'grammer'.


It was late.

Ben Franklin said he did not trust a man who only knows one way to "speel" a word.

Joined: Feb 2001
Posts: 50,593
Campfire Kahuna
Offline
Campfire Kahuna
Joined: Feb 2001
Posts: 50,593
Trapped a lot of them around Kodiak and some years there were unreal numbers of them. Found a 220 far more effective than a 330. They could get out of the bigger traps! Mostly in trail sets between salt and lagoons, but many on slides. Easier to catch them on slides but the birds get them fast if they are out of water.


Mark Begich, Joaquin Jackson, and Heller resistance... Three huge reasons to worry about the NRA.
Joined: Nov 2014
Posts: 685
Campfire Regular
Online Content
Campfire Regular
Joined: Nov 2014
Posts: 685
Today was one of those beautiful sunny days we sometimes get in Mississippi in the winter. 62° first day of winter so the dogs and I went down to the dock to feed the bluegills. The fish are not real active this time of the year but after a few minutes they came a running and began to splash around fighting over the stale bread. I looked up when one of the dogs growled only to see an otter swimming down the lake to join the party. Curiosity killed the cat and the did the otter no good, that and a Hornady .224 50 grain spire point. And all this time I thought it took 180 grains of lead to drown a no good fish eating otter.

Joined: Feb 2018
Posts: 864
G
Campfire Regular
Offline
Campfire Regular
G
Joined: Feb 2018
Posts: 864
Afternoon guys, gals. Looks like everyone has ya covered for ideas. Up here in Canada we have so many ponds and such that the otter only stay in one spot for a good feed and then move on. We usually only catch them as there moving through. Kind of funny, we had a drowning set on a dam once, mr otter must of had some speed up when he crossed over the trap, we caught him by his nuts!!! What a way to go A?? Bill out. 🐾👣🐾👣🇨🇦

Page 1 of 2 1 2

Moderated by  RickBin 

Link Copied to Clipboard
YB23

Who's Online Now
758 members (007FJ, 160user, 10gaugemag, 1beaver_shooter, 10ring1, 10gaugeman, 91 invisible), 3,014 guests, and 1,243 robots.
Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod
Forum Statistics
Forums81
Topics1,187,704
Posts18,400,075
Members73,820
Most Online11,491
Jul 7th, 2023


 







Fish & Game Departments | Solunar Tables | Mission Statement | Privacy Policy | Contact Us | DMCA
Hunting | Fishing | Camping | Backpacking | Reloading | Campfire Forums | Gear Shop
Copyright © 2000-2024 24hourcampfire.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Powered by UBB.threads™ PHP Forum Software 7.7.5
(Release build 20201027)
Responsive Width:

PHP: 7.3.33 Page Time: 0.220s Queries: 15 (0.003s) Memory: 0.8988 MB (Peak: 1.0520 MB) Data Comp: Zlib Server Time: 2024-03-29 00:54:08 UTC
Valid HTML 5 and Valid CSS