Had a setback, otters bore beside my culvert and blew out my dam. I was there the day before they did it and I noticed some small mink and muskrat holes on the backside of the dam beside the culvert..taking note to Take care of that in the spring. I had bagged 7 otters so far this fall winter spring but knew there were a few more transitting the lake..finding trout and sunfish heads. Anyway I went home and often check my trail cam I have on the dam and we were having a fresh snow and I could see a trail being beaten from front to back so I knew it was otters ..it was tight to the cam so I could see the trail but didn't catch the otters on cam but it was evident the next morning when I lost 3 feet of water and the otters has fresh holes burrowed all around the dam and shore...amazing how fast they tunneled actually. I bagged 3 more in those holes in the next few days.
My lake doesn't flow into anything so I check for loss of trout, found 2 and saved one, lost a bunch of tiny sunfish so no big deal. I rebuilt the dam adding another 20 feet of culvert with bentonite in certain areas. I've also added chainlink fence to the dam face and will to the same on the backside. They won't get through that.
I still had lots of water and I'm catching some 3 pound rainbows, just topped up the lake and added more brookies and rbt. I haven't seen any otters since, bagged 7 beavers, but I'm sure it's a letter of time before more show up .but I have a plan! I'm building my spawning stream and I'll add natural channels that the otters will love...set with connibears.
I did catch a rbt and I always check stomach contents...this one had snails in it, I've also found caddisflies, sunfish and waterboatmen as well as giant waterbugs.
