So I see an otter on the ice in our creek right outside our cabin. We took the canoe down the creek to try to find his toilet to trap it but find nothing of the sort. He has been very active along the bank of the creek walking on the ice and sliding around. Even found some holes where he pops in and out of but we can’t get to them to set a trap over the hole because the ice is to thin. Just unseeing what the best choice would be to set some traps for it. I found a spot on the creek bank where he has been sitting eating something so I put a 330 in the brush with some salmon eggs behind it. I thought I had some fish heads and stuff but apparently my kids fed them to my chickens so eggs is what I have until I go back to my house. I have some salmon and some hooligan I can use for bait.

I'd put a 220 or 330 wherever it comes in and out of the water up onto the bank. Have it be submerged, or mostly submerged. Submerged for sure if it is cold enough to be icing over.
How wide is your creek? Are there any natural narrow spots or bottlenecks up or down stream from where you are located?
In either of these cases - no bait needed.
The spots where he is going in and out of holes at the bank. If the ice is too thin, can you get in there with waders on and break it up enough to make your set?

Toss a bucket set out there with a 220 and fresh bait. If your hooligan are fresh use that if not grab some herring from Sportsmans. Fresh bait is the key, the stinky stuff they blow by. Kinda hard to get them now with thin ice and open water unless you can find a spot like WH states. Give it another week or 2 and you should be able to get to the holes.

I might be able to get to them with waders on but wouldn’t breaking up the ice be counter active. The holes are in the ice in a little bay on the creek. I covered a half mile of creek in the canoe and walking and I never found a spot where it goes to actual land he’s just kicking around on the ice ledge of the creek

Sounds like your creek is pretty wide. Not what I had envisioned. The kind of stuff I have trapped, you can almost always find a bottleneck, or a pattern where they show you how they emerge to land. You might need to let this percolate a bit. Let the ice get thicker. Let the otter show you his patterns and weak spots. They spend a lot of time on land. Less, when the ice gets thicker, but they still do. I'm used to getting them where they come in and out of the water. On and off land. This is almost always at a toilet, or a runway between ponds or lakes, or smaller creeks with moving water that stays open way after everything else freezes. Personally, I've never ever had to bait an otter to catch it. But I know it works. A couple of years ago, I caught an otter off the side of the salt, in a wolverine set, using moose scraps as bait! Like HFT said, if you use fish, which is their primary food - keep it fresh.

There are some parts that get bottle necked about as wide as my canoe. Somehow I missed that but like I said other than where I can see him popppping in and out of his hole and traveling the river bank I see no other activity. He used to use the beaver houses in the winter. But the beavers have moved out so I imagine the are froze up inside

If you have Mr. Otter down to that small of a travel way you are figuring it out. I like blind setting them with a 280/330. They can be funneled a bit, but don’t go overboard.

I fence them. Underwater, especially. Little torpedoes are heading where they want to go, and an opening in a narrow spot is the ticket.
Also, don't rule out beaver lodges, active or not. They will check them out.

2nd Viking. You can totally catch them in/on/around the beaver hut. Look for bubbles under the ice. Also in places where they go in/under the bank if there is one.

If the narrow is as wide as your canoe - that's doable. Now it more depends on how deep. Can you wade there?

Looks like you should have fresh snow now too. That should help!

Old abandoned beaver houses are a good place to catch otter.
So are old beaver dams. Set 330's in the channels going to the entrance(entrance run) and set all the breaches in the old dams.
look for dryland crossovers on old dams and at hairpins on the creek.otters like to take shortcuts overland between water bodies.Wherever an otter travels these dryland trails,all the otter will always use the same trail.
Feeder streams coming into the creek,especially if they come from a pond are paydirt.

I'd just be patient and wait a few more weeks. Once things are iced up that otter will have a lot of less options for travel routes (water access) and it will be easier to figure out where to set.
Besides, I'll bet that otter is still pretty blue right now; I'd let it prime up a little more.

Oh I figured he’s blue. I’m not going to sell it my wife wants it mounted and put above our back door.

I just looked cursorily over the comments, but I used to trap otters in SE, besides some crazy off the dock sets as well as even more crazy baited buckets sunk like crab pots which did produce, blind sets and fencing caught many otters for me. In your case that is how I would be setting. Otters are fun and you never know what they will poke their head into.

Can you make a beaver slide? Maybe he will see a fake beaver slide as the real thing and use it. If you build it they will come!