I am also fighting otters. They have two areas near the water edge and one under a feeder that is on concrete raised platform. I have two body traps at the main hole and a box trap at the feeder. So far no luck and the larger hole with two traps is not seeing any action and the otter does not seem to visit this hole. I do not see this otter and I have not seen him for over a year. I did come up over the berm about 14 months ago and I had a glimse of him. The pond is about two acres more or less and is about 8 foot deep . I read all the threads so I am aware of what I should do if the otter gets the best of me and goes thru the berm. If I am missing any steps please let me know.
Todd Overton used night vision goggles and flying lead.
Otters can be very tough to trap because they are a wandring animal. If you have only had the traps out for a couple days, the otters may not have been through your area recently. An otter can sometimes only enter an area once in a 2 week period. If they are traveling through your area, you should be able to find some sign. Look for scat piles and areas where the otters are sliding into the water and set accordingly. One of the best sets, IMO, is a bodygrip placed on a crossover, or an area where the otter leaves the water and travels to another body. If you have another body of water, such as a creek, it is likely that the otters have a trail in between the two. The only problem is that other critters will use the same trail so you may end up with some accidental catches.
If I end up with an otter problem, I wonder how a dead fish with some rat poison hidden in it would work... Not saying I would do such a thing though. Just a hypothetical.
CJ I don't know what kind of rat poison you're talking about but the kind we use around here won't do much damage to a large animal like an otter. I guess if you fed it to him on a regular basis it might. Just an FYI so you don't waste too much time while he's eating your fish.
Might be good to look into poison shrooms?
Warfarin works against rodents because they cannot synthesize vitamin K. This is why it less unsafe for humans. Don't know about otters. You can send live ones to me. They are scarce in Indiana.
Trust me, if I could trap the little SOB's and send them your way I certainly would! I love watching them, just not in a pond I put hundreds of dollars worth of fish into!
We always want what we don't have and despise what is plentiful..
Aint that the truth... Except, I doubt I'd miss mosquitoes or poison ivy.
I hope the otter does not make it thru the berm, if he does I will have major trouble. I am watching the pond banks closely. I may get some bags of concrete and work on the one larger opening.
That would be an otter catastrophe!
Seriously, we have similar issues with muskrats.
I had a dead fish at one end of the pond in the morning and by evening it was at the other end, going against the wind. Still I can not see it or see any activity in two holes.
Wouldn't worry about him going through. Otters do almost no digging of their own. On rare occasions they will, but they prefer to take over old Beaver dens and such. They also prefer live fish over already dead. That's why you sometimes see almost entire remains left over from an Otter kill. Still probaby worth a try to poison them, but it may not be effective.
I must have a beaver as it had dug into the bank pretty good.I continue to have dead fish but I can not get it into my traps. The digging seems to of stopped---for now. Still very concerned.
What is the diameter of the hole that it's digging? I believe down your way you have 3 different digging suspects, beaver, muskrats and nutria. But, none of them regularly dine on fish.
You do seem to have a peculiar case. Are the fish partially eaten or just dead? Is it possible that the diggin and the dead fish are unrelated? Muskrat will eat dead fish on occassion and may be scavenging some of the already dead fish. Sorry if this was posted already, but how big is the hole? If it is larger than about 12 inches in diameter, it is highley unlikely it is a muskrat. Hole underwater or on the bank? Any way you could take a picture of the whole? Also, if there are any trails going up the bank, you may be able to find tracks.
The hole is in the bank at water level and is about 18 inches in diameter.Since I set the body traps about 10 days ago there has been no activity.
No trails going up the bank and the fish I find are not eaten. The fish that was taken from one end of the pond to the other in about 6 hours was not eaten then. Yesterday I watched a 7 inch bream that was half stunned being killed by what appeared to be a catfish. I could not get a very good look at the killer and I was only 6 foot from the predator. It stayed mostly under the fish it was working on but the mouth resembled a catfish and the belly looked similar to a cat fish. Caught a catfish yesterday that was 28 inches long.
I'm trying to get a visual on this.
The critter was facing you with body in the water & head out?? But was under a 7" bream eating it? So you were seeing the body through the water with it's head partially blocked by the bream?
Was it late in the eve. .. low light? You couldn't see very well from 6' away?
It couldn't be a catfish it would simply swallow the fish.
I don't know if a 28" CC has a large enough gape to fit a 7" BG.
I don't know if a 28" CC has a large enough gape to fit a 7" BG.
Female would have a gape of about 3", a male of about 4.5".
If anyone knows the mouth size of a CC its Theo... Theo, post that cool chart of CC mouth sizes again!
Put something in the hole AquaBlok-has pond seal that will plug the hole. Sacrete from the hardware store will work.
You may end up doing some dirt work to repair the holes but try to patch them first.
I agree with otto. If there is no other activity around the pond, it's likely the hole is abandoned by whatever critter was using it. Plug it up so no new problem moves in.