I was out looking for new water to fish and found a beutiful little lake that is probably in the 50 acre range. I was told by my son that it gets relatively little fishing pressure. The only potential problem that I could see was that the lake has a population of river otters in it. I saw around four of them playing in the middle of the lake. There is likely more I did not see. Any ideas on how this might effect the bass, crappie, and sunfish population? Never fished any water where these critters were present.
Well, those guys eat fish and having a strong population of otters means that they need a strong population of fish to support them. Same with really any predator in a good ecosystem.
Kind of off topic but i know they will go after lures, my friend had no idea one was near and we found out all of sudden one in fact, went after his lure and ripped it and the line, hopefully he was fine!
I saw several a few months in a 1/2 acre pond I helped build. They aren't there any more. ;D
i have never had a problem with Otters but one of the private lakes i fish in has 2 or 3 beavers....i kinda like them since they have been chewing trees down and they land in the water giving me more cover to fish 8-)....but do you guys think that they can be the same as Otters and kind of hurt the fish population? b/c we used to catch ALOT of bass over 5 and 6 pounds in that lake but since i have noticed the beavers there i havnt caught a bass 5+ pounds....could that be b/c of the beavers??...thanks...
I'm sure that those beavers were probably there before you noticed them. Just bad luck IMO.
muskies eat bass too
Funny story about these otters. One day, my little brother (at the time only 12) and I were out on our jon boat fishin. We wen't down to a small cove where we fished before but not too often. We heard this HUGE splash which happend to be the otters tail but at the time we didn't know and we wen't in thinkin it was a fish. 2 Minutes later we heard flopping and this crazy breathing soudn and we look over and see this otter literally stuffing a huge fish into its mouth. We were far away from it but at the time my brother practically peed his pants cause he was so scared cause we didn't know what the heck it was. Later on we foudn out that it was an otter though, but still a little spooky. Especially since it had a HUGE fish ;D
Wow im stupid, i gave false information... that story was about beavers not otters going after the lures, sorry guys
Otters are very cute and if you hurt one you will burn in hell forever
You otter not hurt them. I like otters. They are fun to watch. When we go flounder fishing in Chincoteage VA. you have to tie the doors shut on your minnow buckets overnight because the sea otters use them like smorgasboards. I have seen them empty all the buckets in the marina overnight. Free lunch man !
Otters are very cute and if you hurt one you will burn in hell forever
Lol. Ditto
Maybe it was Hector from Frontier airlines.............He's out looking for votes! ;D ;D ;D
On 12/21/2019 at 9:06 AM, 5/0 said:Otters or seals=no fish.
Why do you think the otters and seals are there? For fish
A couple of days ago I saw an otter swim across our pond get out and chase a buzzard. They are fast. Just yesterday I was fishing a river and a couple of otters were swimming where I was fishing; I left.
I have seen wild otters in the Everglades, they are awesome animals.
I attempted to feed the resident Otter a Bluegill I caught. This was in Orlando Florida in February 2019
Awesome animal. No feeding them people food was the rule.
There are otters in the local reservoir and I've seen them in groups herding a big ball of shad. I'm not sure hey were catching and/or eating any of them though. if they were, they are probably eating the bass fry too. The California Delta has a problem with seals now. Lately guys have reported seeing multiple seals in the sloughs. The seals definitely are eating the bass as guys have seen them come up for air with bass up to 10#. They just eat the stomach area and ignore the rest of the fish. Yes, it is illegal to shoot them
There are otters all over Tennessee, an extremely successful reintroduction took place in the 90s. If y’all have any problems give me a call! We have removed them from marinas where they were pooping all over high dollar boats
On 1/2/2020 at 9:06 AM, TnRiver46 said:There are otters all over Tennessee, an extremely successful reintroduction took place in the 90s. If y’all have any problems give me a call! We have removed them from marinas where they were pooping all over high dollar boats
I’d be interested in hearing how you remove them. Send me a pm when you have time.? Thanks!
On 1/2/2020 at 9:06 AM, TnRiver46 said:There are otters all over Tennessee, an extremely successful reintroduction took place in the 90s. If y’all have any problems give me a call! We have removed them from marinas where they were pooping all over high dollar boats
I saw one Monday morning. First I ever saw outside a zoo or something like that. Little guy. It was pretty sweet.