How to avoid otters? At least I think it’s otters. Could be beaver, but no trees being cut and no huts.
Went to a new property today mainly for coons and possums at his deer feeders and from past experience knew the pond dam that separates to different ponds was good for a bobcat or two.
Well this year it looks like a coon highway. But, I found two crossing of something from one pond to the other. I care nothing about facing a live otter in a foot hold in the dark!! I can wait until daylight to check, but don’t care anything about that either.
What can I do to avoid whatever’s crossing there? I know not to set in it, but how far away can I set and still get the coons and whatever else walks the dam?? I don’t water trap so I have no clue what otters might go to to eat.

If you don’t want otters, go ahead and forget about setting crossovers between waters with pretty much anything but DPs.

If you stick to the trails parallel to the water, you should be okay in my experience, although depending on specific situations, anything is possible.

The thing about avoiding crossovers is you’re passing up a great opportunity for catches. They link attractive features, and they’re commonly used by different animals. If I wanted to catch coons and opossums only, I’d put 2 DPs right in that crossover and save the footholds for the other trails.

It’s a 50-60 yard long dam that runs N/S between two ponds that are E/W of each other. There’s just a couple crossovers from the two ponds. One looks old and the other is FRESH, lol. I’ll try and take pics tomorrow. I have a couple traps set already…MB550’s. We shall see what happens in the morning. Hoping coons get to them before whatever is crossing does. I guess it could be beavers just happy with both full ponds, but I’d think I’d see some type of cutting going on if it was.
The traps are about 10-15 yards from the crossing. Had already started setting when I got to the beginning of the dam and saw all the tracks.

Only way to make sure is to set up a camera or two.

A widespread trigger on the top of a 330 will miss most of them to avoid the kick.

If there arent any small piles of grass or pine straw with otter scat on/next to them on top of the crossovers then it is likely beavers. Look for the beaver's toenail marks....if none...likely otters.

Also could be gator....their toenail marks and crossovers resemble big beaver crossovers.

Interesting thought on the gators. You boys down south pinch them now and then I assume?

Unfortunately, yes, but there are steps that can be taken that I feel help reduce potential non target alligator catches. Footholds can also help, but not every situation calls for a single tool, and I would not want to be limited to a single type of trap.

Those might be interesting to release out of a foothold.

Not bad if you are prepared.

Mac

Snares and bodygrips are more likely to hold on to them. Bigger ones are a little sporty to release. I have only caught one in a foothold....about a 5 footer.

I’m not convinced most standard equipment would still be there if you were to get a good latch on a really big one. I haven’t held one in a foothold, yet, but I did lose a foothold in an area where alligators were problematic. I never did know what happened to it, but I suppose it’s possible the whole rig could have been taken by a gator.

Y’all taking this from bad to worse, lol!! Thankfully all I’ve caught is a possum along there so far, with several deer tripped traps. This place is literally loaded with deer.
Both crossings haven’t been used since I’ve been there thankfully. I put some of the dirt I carry at the entrance/exits and nothing has been over it.

Mystery solved…

The Spartan cellular wireless cameras are a great tool and resource for useful information (and entertainment).

Have a link to those, Davexx1 ?