I’m located in central Georgia and trapping a string of ponds connected with creeks. I only have traps on trails between two ponds and have caught 4 otters so far. What is a realistic number to expect to be running this section this time of year?

From where I sit that question is really hard to answer. From experience I know how many otter to expect from the areas I trap. But it took years of my personal trapping data to come up with this.

For me, in high density good otter habitat on our Oregon coast I average about 1 otter per river mile.

Here the average is about 1 otter for every 15 beaver,on a managed trapground.
The more beaver you have(better habitat) the more otter you will have.
You can judge it pretty good like BP said once you get to know your trapground.
Of course there are cyclical peaks and slumps over the years.
In the boreal ecosystem where i operate,managing wolves along with the beaver has a big effect on both beaver and otter numbers.
Trappers here who maintain substantial beaver quotas all take some wolves each season.
Wolves when out of control really do a number on beaver,and beaver being a keystone species on a trapground means when their numbers drop all other furbearers (and other species as well) will also be low or non existant.

This here don't sound much different from our area. The otters here travel some distance though.

I know I’ve seen family groups of 4-6 where it seems like big and little ones. All that I have caught so far this year appear to be adults though so I wasn’t sure how many more to expect

The otter rut is underway here. Lots of adult males moving around.

If you caught an adult female and some yearling otter (possibly her offspring) then you may have that entire family group. But, if the pond outlet stream has a good flow to it other otters know the ponds are there and that the other otters were there. They'll keep coming. You will most likely catch otter there till seasons end. Probably go several days between catches but another will be thru there.

Otters here are not dependent on beavers and beaver ponds. Middle Ga has more topography than these swamps down here near the Florida line, but there are miles and miles of feeder streams, swamps, and ponds up your way too that are not controlled by beaver and are otter highways.

Another tidbit of good info: unless humans totally destroy those ponds or the water dries up...there will be just as many otter using those trails next winter.

Best I ever did on otter were 82 In a 2 month period while trapping In SC. And that was when otters were averaging over a $100.00.

And I'll bet those graded pale and extra pale just like the Tibetans wanted too.

Most of them did.
I shipped through NAFA and they called me telling me the feds were checking up on me since I was from WI. Then that spring I had I believe a under cover fed asking If I could get them any extra otter tags. I told them that's all they had to do was buy a SC trapping license. Might have been born at night but not last night.

About that same time I had my best year ever at 74. Our otter cards (unlimited) have 15 spaces to record otters. It always kind of ticked me off that I ended up one spot shy of filling my fifth card. Most of mine graded brown or xtra brown. Still good money. I was averaging right around $100

Now that otter prices are low it's one otter per 3-4 bvr on my south Arkansas control line. Been in south Georgia before doing bvr there were plenty otters there !

I found this otter scent mound and It must have been used for 40 years by 100s of otter. It must have been 3 feet high and about 4' across.There were two trenches leading to the mound and I caught 18 otter off of that mound. SC Is flat run over with mill ponds and they are great otter locations.

Good answer

Thanks for all the answers. I caught 3 big males and 1 female last. Been two days since I’ve had any action or seen fresh sign. I imagine I could probably catch some more if I ran up to the other creek section. Maybe I’ll get up there sometime this month

Hang with them. Good habitat will have otter moving thru with the rut going on.
Good habitat will hold a lot of otter. I caught 87 last winter and didn’t get over 10 miles from home.

Wow! That’s impressive. I’m going to let these traps soak another day or two then I have a few other places that I need to move them to.

Catching female otter during the rut is very bad management.They breed right after birthing,so you are killing 4 or 5 otter for each female you catch during the rut.

While I know I’m just making small ripples with my predator management on relatively small properties, that is exactly what the pond owners want. They manage the pond for trophy bass and crappie and have no use for otters getting in their pond

During the rut I catch a super high percentage of male otter. Never kept exact numbers, but certainly 80% males. Some years a higher percentage than that.
However I don’t exactly follow your line of thinking. Our otter are born beginning in mid to late March with the bulk born in April. How does killing a pregnant female in December (prior to the rut) reduce the population any more than killing a pregnant female in February? (During the rut)
Our season ends February 20th.

Hmmm....please explain how you set a trap for ONLY male otters. Id like to know so I can better manage my otter harvest.