Thank you Gunny for posting the info!!! I’m going to try the bobcat glad lure and also fresh fish oil on a couple of different sets on the road he runs often with duck feathers and see what happens. One problem is I can’t find the body of water he’s coming from to set a slide of trail set. The small lake that’s close by I walked around and there is zero sign. The river is about 3 miles away so I don’t know. It’s strange how he’s running the roads at night hunting just like a coyote. How fast are they on land? Could they catch a rabbit or rat ? What could he actually be hunting? Sorry for the questions I’ve never trapped water fur just coyote, bobcat and fox. I know zero about otter and beaver.
If there is no otter sign around that small lake it is due to three specific reasons;
1. There is nothing for them to eat or chase.
2. They don't know about.
3. You are "behind" them, not in front of them.
A bevy of otters can range up to 120 square miles with up to 30 linear miles of waterfront. I've been in the woods on a hardwood ridge hunting and hear the loudest commotion in the world, and here comes a bevy traveling. Or a single will come loping along. So an otter traveling is pretty much normal. Remember, even if you only see one, there are at least a couple of more somewhere around.
Duck feathers works good down here as they cruise the duck leases looking for ducks hunters have dropped. Besides that they eat a lot of waterfowl down here that is still kicking, and frogs, and turtles, and baby alligators, and mink and... anything else they can find.
The #1 reason people don't catch otters is they don't leave the traps out long enough. If you get behind them it might take a month or two, if they decide to return.