I don't know about trappers who quit when it gets cold.That is when the fur gets marketable,no wonder so many complain about the prices,lol.

Well Boco, these are Alabama critters, if it goes to icing up their gonna clean the store shelves of bread and milk and hibernate till spring.

IMO a 330 size trap is a poor choice for otter unless it is fully submerged.
For a fast moving otter a 330 quite often closes on them to far back. My experience with the smaller 280 is that it closes faster and results in fewer, if any, poor catches. The 280 will also capture more of the incidental mink and muskrats that often trigger beaver and otter sets without getting caught. Thus it is the ultimate otter trap IMO. The 220 also has its place also in those narrow pinch points.

I've got a few thousand otters and a good bit of them happen like that. I believe they either don't hit the triggers until through a bit or they weasel their upper body out after caught. Then again, I've never watched it.

Were those otter in 280's??? I don't think so!

If I find a tight necked down area I think I would rather use a 220 than a 330. But most of my water ways are to wide. Would need a lot of fencing down to get them into a 220. A lot of the newer replacement triggers I have put on my 330's are much longer, so I keep them that way. Spread them into a wider V shape and put the trigger on the bottom in otter runs I set. Works for me.

I had too many otter go around 280's when I used them. If you want a smaller opening just block down a 330 with sticks. Since I swapped to circle triggers on my 330's it stopped hip catches. I shape it more oval than a circle and every otter since has had his head in the circle.

The circle trigger is likely a good choice if you target otter with 330's

What if any effect does the circle trigger have on beaver? I was not targeting Otter but I'd like to do a better job on the ones that do wonder thru my beaver sets.

I don't use them,I would not want them for certain beaver sets but others I think they wouldn't be a problem.

Tried them once on a dozen Belisle 330s. Ended up with too many snapped and empty traps for the way I was trapping. Took them off and never looked back.

Lots of guys swear by them, so they must work for someone out there.

That's difficult for me to believe when so many swear by the 220, which is a 6" opening, for otter. The 280 is an 8" hole which is no problem for any otter I have ever seen. The 280 is a much faster closing trap than the 330 thus a better trap for fast moving otter.

IMO it must have been something in the way you set the 280's up that made the otters avoid them.

Yea I've never seen avoidance with 280's unless that spot had recently caught. I don't think any trap would have helped in those situations because the otter were avoiding the spot not the trap.

This^^^^

Mostly 330s. Bunch of them were in younger years when I didn't know adjusting traps was a thing. But even in current times I see enough poorly caught otters and can't explain it with any certainty.

Again were they in 330's or 280's???

330s. 280s it nearly never happens.

There you go proving 330's are a poor otter trap and the 280 is much superior. Thanks.

ive caught my fair share of otter in everything from 155s to 330s, and id take a 220 or 280 over any of them, there is no modification to can do to a 330 to make it a ethiac trap for an otter, this year i had a big buck otter ( 22 lb) get caught in a 330 by the hinds and pull up a 18 inch rebar and go 25 yards down the stream before tangling in some alders hanging over the bank on the other side. i caught a beaver the day before and it was head caught in the circle trigger, DOA but that otter was able to "weasel" his way threw that circle, a otter can swim up to 60 mph then at the speed of the current and you get how fast a otter is traveling. a 330 is bigger and slower then its smaller counter parts thus naturally catching an otter farther back,

I've never denied that.