Hi all.

I have been chasing an otter for the last week. He is hitting a small pond by Green Bay that is being kept open due to aeration. The weather has been hot (40 degrees) one day and 20 degrees the next so not ideal for setting footholds. I thought well I will get him with a cubby baited with mackeral or I will locate his trails and set a 160 in it. Well long story short - I finally found a hot trail through some swamp grass and set a Belisle 160 (largest size allowed) on an H stand. Yesterday, I found the trap triggered, pulled off the H stand at a ninety degree angle to the 24" rebar stake that was still doing its job. There was no catch circle.

So....what happened? My experience says the Belisle usually doesn't miss. Did he pull out or Did Johnny Sneakum take him out of the trap?

Shaking me head on this one.

Brian

PS. Light snow this morning and no tracks headed to the pond. Not sure if it is dead or scared off.

May have climbed over that trap and set It off.

My first thought also...….

When I catch otters in 160s, there isn’t a catch circle. They usually don’t even make it off of the stabilizer. It could have been a Sneakum. Could have been a critter hit the dog while climbing over too with a belisle I suppose, but you’ll never “know” what happened.

Why not set in the water where it is entering and exiting the crossover??? I also agree that it probably climbed over or around the trap.

This. The 3 otters I got in 160's (duke) were doa, trap still on H stand.

Agree with kryon and aixponsa.160's =lights out otter.Likely fired by a beaver.

Thanks for the thoughts:

1. No beaver around so not them

2. The edges of the pond are frozen so there is no good entry / exit point

A closer examination of the trap showed that one of the trigger wires was broken off.

Probably never know what really happened.

Brian

Cross over ?
Was it near a toilet ?
Otters more times then not.
Back into a toilet.

That’s good to know, I never thought of that. One of these days, I will get me a WV otter!!

To break off a trigger wire;
What has happened is one wire hit the bar when closing and suspended the trap from closing momentary, enough time for the critter to squeeze through; then snap the wire breaks and the trap closes. That has been my experience

That's happened to me a few times. I've actually seen where the trap Is still open because of It.

But I'm still betting something climbed over that trap and set It off.

I consider the trigger holding the trap open a problem and have seen it several times. I cut the long Duke triggers down to solve the problem but still had it happen a couple days ago.

Anything can happen but who in WI would steal an otter?

When we find a otter toilet Is It scat or puke Or Is It both?

I am thinking the trigger wire allowed him to escape due to the trap being pulled 90 degrees to the left of the stand. If it climbed over the trap would still have been on the stand.

I wonder if the strike was still lethal. I checked around but hard to find anything in heavy swamp grass.

Thanks guys. Nice to know it happens to others.

The trigger hangs up on a jaw occasionally because you have the trap set with the trigger hanging down from the upper jaw. When the trap is sprung and closing the trigger falls towards the opposed closing jaw. Whereas if set on a bottom/ground jaw the trigger falls away from the opposed closing jaw and cannot hang up on the trigger.

Ive had the trigger wires hold open the jaws of a bodygripper before a couple of times. Its gotta be a one in a million chance of happening, the chance of the wire hitting the bar perfectly with all that thrust power behind it? Id imagine if it was stolen they would have taken the trap too.

I do set them upside down. Still happened but only once this season. In the past I would see it a couple times a week. That’s irritating

Beav heard guys call it puke but it looks like crap to me

I guess this was meant for anyone so I will give my experience. I find more of what I have always called scat than anything. Sometimes I will find the slimy puke as well. I don't recall many times where I found slimy puke only.

Then again, some of what I am calling scat may actually be puke. What got me to thinking that is one of my dogs that tends to overeat sometimes because he is scared to death that one of the other dogs may get a bite. When that happens he sometimes pukes. That puke is almost always much drier than regular puke and somewhat resembles loose turds. That got me to thinking some of those otter turds may actually be vomit.

I have full intention of putting trail cams on some toilets when I finally get to chase otter again. Maybe that will give more insight.

The only reason I brought It up was Newts reply about the otter backing up to do It's duty.