Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Trapping Otters

Caught this thieving bastard today. They sure do love our fish.....

Can't say I blame them. I think they like king crab too - based on all the small king crab carapaces and legs strewn on the beaches when I've been out deer hunting the last couple of times.

Got another one today. Perfect catch on this one.

Buddy of mine has 4 ponds. One stocked with catfish. He told me his catfish disappeared and he thought someone was fishing when he wasn't home. Then he saw what he thought was an otter. I set some #3 coils on trails going in the water. I have caught 6 otters so far. And a bunch of Coons.
His catfish pond he had bought and stocked 400 fish over the course of 2 years. He had taken none out. When I started trapping he only had a couple coming up when he fed them. He has stocked again and is not losing fish. The otters were eating crappie and bass in the other ponds. Hopefully I am thinning the otters some.

Got another one

Got another one today. The belisle hit this one so hard it bent the jaws.

Trapped ALOT of otter when I lived in SEAK. My favorite fur for hats and mitts.

Nice catches!

I'm really only trapping these because I get to keep them instead of taking them on a nuisance permit. Otters are a lot of work! I've only focused on getting the ones that are hitting our fish. Here in a few days I'll get some sets out for mink and marten. Need some snow!

FH, got a question.... I've trapped a few otters, caught them in foot hold traps. Couple of the pics look like 220's and the one with the glove and foot a 330. Those otters seem small compared to what I've caught.

Is that the normal size for otters in your part of the country, or did I just happen to catch some large ones. Maybe I'm guessing the trap size wrong.

About what would those otters weigh. The ones I caught were 20-25 lbs or so.

The traps in those pics are 2 different 330's. These so far have been younger/smaller otters. I'll try to get a weight on one when I get another one. I know there was at least one family group of 5 that were hitting our fish. I've definitely caught them a LOT bigger than these!

Yeah catching them is easy, its the fleshing part that sucks. A pressure washer on the beach at low tide makes easy work of it. Also makes a giant mess, hence the doing it on the beach at low tide. Full Grundens and a face shield make it more enjoyable!

FishinHank, it's all of that fat in your Alaskan Fish that attracts them lol

Seriously, thanks for the education.

Cheers

One day last week I was going down Hwy 38 between Des Arc, and Hickory Plains, Ar, and there was a big otter dead on the centerline of the highway. I have seen a few over the years, but they are fairly scarce here. miles

This was a big one

Yeah, those are just babies. You haven’t got Momma yet!

Back when I still had the trout farm we had some otter trouble. I hired a native trapper, and she pulled out a female that ended up measuring 6’3’ nose to tail. When she brought it to Fish and Game headquarters to be tagged, the whole building emptied out. When it sold at the fur sale, the body was 12” larger than the “jumbo” size minimum, lol.

They can do some damage on a trout farm.

The biggest one I ever got I shot with a 62gr varmint grenade and it didn't exit..It hung over 7ft from nose to the tip of the tail

Shot this one with a camera.

River otters can be very nasty and have canine teeth that can ruin your day. I shot a 30-35lbs otter in Eastern NC years ago from my boat. Thought it was finished so I rowed over grabbed it’s tail and threw him or her in the boat. Couldn’t tell where I hit it as the thick fur and a 22 bullet left no easy ID. My dog was with me and she had to sniff it and nudge it. About ten minutes later the otter came to and attacked my dog biting her in the butt then it jumped overboard and was gone. Neither I or the dog wanted anything to do with that otter. They turn up their lips like a snarling dog showing some serious teeth and make a kind of high pitched scream. Cost me some vet bills.

Rick

I’ve caught two as incidentals in foothold traps and both were very feisty to say the least. Worst of any critter I can recall including wolves.

Osky

Thanks for clearing up my mistakes in the pics. Ones I caught would not have gone 3', I cant imagine a 7' one.