Hi everyone. This year I've decided to mainly water trap. My concern is what to use to properly anchor your trap. Say I have a pocket set with a no. 11. If I used a fence post or staked it in deeper water I'd be fine with mink, rats, and coon, but what if an otter got in there? I was just curious what everyone else uses to anchor their water sets. Thanks for your time!

If your tie off is long enough put a branch on the deep side of the stake and that way when a otter get caught it will get caught up in the branch and then to the point of not go anywhere and at most of the times dead. it have work for me.

I tell my kids to anchor the trap to hold an otter or beaver, doesnt matter if we're mink trappin.

Thank you for the answers. I'll have to try that branch idea.

The branch work for me when I set just for otter. Have your chain about 5 feet that way what ever dose get caught that is all, a otter will have room to go in deep water and get caught in the branch and make sure it is a decent size. With this set up the otters was always dead from drown when wrap around the branch and get under water and stuck there.Had got 2 at the same time once with the 2 traps set on each side of a tree that they was going up a bank.I had used #3 Victor coils then.Did hold them also in # 1 3/4 coil Northwood also that was set for coon.

Make up some 24" 1/2" rebar stakes. Cheap, Will outlast you and are kind of fun to make.

24" depending on your soil but I'm guessing 24" will be fine most places of Iowa.

Rebar in deep water with wire and lock to allow critters to get to deep water but no return.

keep them in the drink swimming add a little entanglement and it all over but the crying! 5 foot of chain a green stick anchor drove just under the water surface at 41/2 feet off bank. Another stick poked in at 6-7 foot off bank. Deadly and light weight, small hatchet and your trap

When I ran long auto line for coon I used a lot of pockets in ditches and creeks. I have all ny 5 and 6 foot drowners made up with the top stake attached. The top stake is wood with a 4'' pigtail of wire ran through a hole in the stake about 2'' down from the top. Wood stake are hard to get out so the wire lets you get the drowner off easy. I use wood on the deep stake too. Use a 2 x 2 piece and put extra wire on it so you can wire a drowner to it. You can use RR plates. Old Wheel Rims, Concrete, re-rod, fence posts, what ever. It doesn't matter just so it is either heavy or staked to hold a beaver and you'll be fine. Also found that if I use a tall stake sometimes a coon will wrap around it and pull out so do not leave a stake sticking up so something can wrap around it. Always give them nothing to pull against and keep them swimming like TONY said.
Sometimes at plunge pools you can have several sets across from each other and run wire or cable all the way across the creek to the next set. You don't need a deep stake for this type of trapping. Just twist a small piece of wire on the cable or wire where you want the trap to stop in deep water. Make sure the trap chains cannot cross in deep water or that will be trouble too . Keep your catch far enough away from each other so they cant fight.

coons are easy to deal with keep there feet wet and they usually hypothermia out quickly. Unless they can get on top something! But then there feet dry. Coons loose a lot of there body temp thru there feet same as a dog. Stands to reason why coons hole up once the snow flys

I use a feed bag usually. And anchor the trap with a 30" T stake

Thanks everyone for your answers. I'm excited to try these this fall.