Is there a way to tell if the otters live on my pond or visit it? There are plenty of places they could easily live and it would be tough to tell. There is an old Beaver hut a new beaver hut that is occupied. A couple old holes/dens in the bank on the forested side.
Are they mating this time of year or do they already have young I need to contend with? I’d assume if they are pairing up this time of year I have time before my problems get exponentially worse.
Ive gone bass fishing for 35-60 minutes 3 times since I have seen them and I have only caught one 14 inch fish with a deep jerkbait. If it wasn’t for the otters I wouldn’t be concerned with only catching one during mid December but now I am.
Otters will leave scat full of fish scales - I walk perimeter of my pond to look for signs of them. In my pond they showed up starting in January last year. Ended up trapping/shooting 7 - also got a couple beaver in the traps. I don't think I lost very many fish as I got most of them before they made it into the pond or got them shortly after they arrived.
They will move into old beaver huts. I set traps near them.
