Hello,

This is my first time posting here so hopefully I’m doing this correct. 1 week ago I caught a young Ohio otter on a muskrat bait pole. I couldn’t believe that the otter was curious enough to check out an apple but I was more shocked that I caught an otter in my county. Unfortunately season doesn’t open in Ohio for them until December 26th. After releasing him all I could think about is how I can hopefully catch it or a different one from the same spot when season comes in. The problem is I have limited locations to make sets for otter on the small section of swamp I have permission on. There is a culvert with roughly 5 feet of water that runs under a road splitting the swamp that I was debating trying a bottom edge set on. Other than that I believe I’m limited to where I can set because of property boundaries. Have any of you been successful with making a pocket set on a drowns for otter? I am mainly a muskrat/beaver trapper and have no experience with otter so I was hoping I could get some better ideas off of hear. Thanks in advance!

Josh

Block off the culvert with two conibears.Any crossover trails on either side of the culvert?

I should have mentioned culvert is roughly 12 feet wide with 5 feet of slow moving water in it. Zero trails going up and around.

Look around any old beaver houses for otter scat.It will have lots of fish scales in it.

When they are hunting they are working the shoreline looking for crayfish, clams, muskrats, fish, anything to eat. So pick a point or fallen tree and go out deep enough to put a 330 underwater with the trigger on the bottom so it is perpendicular to the shore and then build a fence with sticks and brush to hide the trap and block it off. Put a dive stick over the trap and fence out a littler farther than the trap to force an otter hunting the shoreline to go through that 10 inch square hole you left him.

Otters are curious animals and attracted to the color white. Use it to your advantage.

There is currently an active beaver lodge on the adjacent property. I will be trapping the beaver before attempting at the otter. I can trap the neighboring property but only for a few days,(owner likes his privacy). So I can only trap the crossover on the dam and possibly the lodge for a few days after I get the beaver again this year. I had someone else suggest setting up the lodge after the beaver are out but I’ll need a canoe to access. I can leave traps in as long as necessary on the property with the culvert and swamp though where I originally caught the otter

Thank you for the advice, I hadn’t considered that. Do you recommend any lure on the shoreline in the area around the trap?

That could be what got him on my white fibergalss muskrat bait pole to begin with then. I have seen some people use bucket sets. Is this something worth trying?

They will be around the lodge and you will catch them in the runs going into the lodge. But like you said you need a boat. Beaver go down their channel, chew on a tree, swim back the channel, forget that, you want otters! They hunt and sleep and they are all up and down the shore hunting, make them go through your trap.

What county are you in? I’m from Ashland county. Not many otter here, but every once in a while one will get caught, usually incidentally by beaver trappers. The north and south east part of the state have pretty good numbers. From my limited experience with otters, old beaver houses, dams, and channels are hotspots.

Nope due to coons

I’ve trapped with some very knowledgeable people, and every one of them that I ask says that blind sets will greatly outproduce lured or baited sets for otter, at least in our area.

Good to know, have you ever had any luck setting a pocket set for them on the shoreline? I’ve read where some people have but I didn’t know if it was effective or not.

X2

Coons get into them long before the otter ever showed up for me.

Interesting, I wish I would’ve posted here before I spent 30 bucks on otter lure haha. Thank you for the advice!

Pinch the down where you can.

I’m from Columbiana county. I know of very few caught here but I also know that they are plentiful in the counties north and south of me.

Simple set that I caught one in today, tree limb down in lake, otters working the shoreline. Cut a bunch of nice stakes, anchor trap cable to tree, stake trap on bottom trigger down, add fence on each side, put dive stick over top and you got it.