Hey all, I’ve been trapping a river recently it’s about 20’ at the widest and maybe 10’ at the narrowest point. It’s fast moving water that’s about 16”-24” deep in the straight always with around 4’-6’ in the corners. I’ve noticed a lot of otter sign there, tracks and slides in snow, toilets and scat all along the banks etc. the otters were showing up every 10 days or so. On the 27th of December I set a few 330 in bank dens and cross overs as well as a beaver extreme on a drowner where they’d been leaving the water to enter a toilet area. On New Year’s Day I caught a big female otter in a bank den, there were no tracks or slides on the banks just this one otter in a 330. Since then I’ve caught nothing and seen zero sign. It has been real cold and the river is frozen over in a lot of places. I’ve never had otter take this long to return especially with the amount of sign I’d seen in the area. I have some hypothesis as to what’s going on. 1. When I caught the female the other otters saw it get caught and that scared them off. 2. They’re holed up somewhere with good food sources waiting for the ice to clear from the river so their hunting would be more successful. 3. They’re just taking longer to come through this time, for whatever reason. Any of you otter pro’s out there have any ideas or like experiences? Any thoughts on the subject would be great, thanks.

It's not scientific, but in my experience, they come thru the day before I set and again, the day after I pull, regardless of interval.

In my area, its 18 to 21 days between visits.

I hear you Dave, lol

I’m lucky I live within walking distance of my sets, so I’m going to keep at it for a while longer.

That is a definite bonus. Some of my best sets are 50 yards from my back door. Makes checking them easier over a long time.

Here in the U.P., I've noticed that otter travel routines become more stretched out during the dead of winter. Areas that see otter activity every 3 to 4 days in the late fall/first ice will become 2 to 3 weeks in mid winter. In March the activity picks up, and in April there will be sign everywhere. You have a point about food sources. In mid winter here, they use the frozen ponds less and move toward the more open trout streams. Keep a trap at that bank den. If it's been visited once, it will produce again.

Any thoughts on them being educated or holed up somewhere K Snow?

Mine are all on a 12-16 day travel cycle. I set under the ice mostly, they don't travel the surface much around here

Thanks for the info Brooktrout, im already feeling my optimism return, cheers.

I am no where near an expert, but I swear I had one that was smart to a bottom edge set. It had never crossed over the little point that had the bottom edge at, but after I caught one just upstream from that set, I had one avoiding that trap every time it came through. After the third visit, I added some sticks to break up the trap outline, and 19 days later I had him. I have also noticed an uptick in movement with really nasty weather moving in.

That said, I had one stick his head in a 160 in 8 inches of water along some riprap. I guess every species has dumb ones.

Thank you for the replies, I’m gonna stick it out for a couple more weeks and see what happens. I really like the sets I have in, if they come through they’ll get nailed

I say a family group that got spooked by the disappearance of the female.
There should be some more otter traffic there eventually.

Yeah it’s for sure a possibility Boco.

i agree with boco, but last year we had a set take 60+ days to connect,

There are millions of otters out there. I don't have the patience to catch the ones that take months to catch. I'm not otter ADC trapping, matter of fact I actually prefer to leave some seed for future trapping seasons. 2 weeks is about the absolute longest I'm leaving something set. If you haven't caught him in a couple weeks there is a better location to be trapping, in my opinion

Where I trap once you get to know the watershed tributaries on your traplines,You will catch otter in the same spots every year.
If you are trapping under ice in winter you can clean out all the otter on a watershed with a few sets if you leave the sets in too long.I have to watch that.

I hear what you’re saying coondagger but, In my area, about 80 miles east of Toronto, there’s not millions of otter. There are however millions of people, literally lol. Many of these people view trappers and trapping in a poor light. Therefore gaining access to trapping areas can be tricky. I’m limited to a few spots where I can set for otter. Also it’s a 5 minute walk from my house which is nice.

That’s true Boco. Just looking to catch a pair to tan up and hang with the other hides. I catch that 60” 30 pound male and I’m pulling up lol. Cheers for the insights!!