I can’t do a PM to Boco so I’ll tell all!
Some time ago, maybe a year or better, Boco mentioned and briefly described his “Christmas Tree Set” (?) for otter. My memory isn’t the sharpest anymore but I used what I could remember of his description and my conception of the set’s principle this past January. For the first time in my trapping career, I caught my otter limits from two Zones in Michigan on purpose instead of just accidentals/incidentals!
Thank you Boco for the guidance!

Good deal. What is y’all’s quote?

I can take 3 in Zone 2 and 1 in Zone 3. I live within a mile of the Zone’s dividing line. I’ve caught otter as incidentals while beaver trapping but I’ve never intentionally set specifically for them until this past winter. I enjoy fleshing them including the tails.

Nice work. Probably my favorite animal to target.

Those otter are always fun to skin . I usually kept a couple knives sharp for skinning those rascals. I would that they would hit the 80 dollar mark again. I would target them more.

I looked in the archives and didnt see it anywhere would you like to elaborate on the set?

Yup, I searched as well but couldn’t find anything so I used memory and cobbled a set together that just happened to work.
I think the principle of the set Houndone was to spud the ice open in fast water in the shape of an inverted “V”. I placed the trap(s) back under the ice right at the point of the “V” and the larger hole helped keeped it from freezing so quickly. I wanted to see open water & hear water moving. I did this where I found weak ice always due to a heavier current AND it helped I'm sure, where I would find where an otter used a hole in the weak/thinner ice. I’d open the hole in the form of a “V” on the upstream side and set the trap as I previously described. I also used some fencing in the outline of the shape of the “V” shaped hole I’d cut. Whether it was Boco’s set as he described or just my memory of what I thought his set was, it worked beyond my expectations and I certainly look forward to trapping otter next season.

Last summer I decided to catch a mess of bullheads out of a deep woods creek that I had trapped beaver on. Well, I couldn’t catch a bullhead for all the huge creek chubs grabbing my worms as soon as it hit the water! These babies were all at least 8” long and stunk ti high heaven even though the creek wasn’t stagnant. As I was fishing I was thinking about the otter sign I’d seen and as thick as then creek chubs were, no wonder the otter were there. My biggest otter came from that creek last January and stunk to high heaven of those frigin creek chubs!!!!

Thanks for the explanation.

Boco is a wealth of trapping knowledge but I enjoy him more for his feistiness. He'll argue about anything.

Good job, Seldom. Pelts look well handled.

I've learned from Boco about pinning tails with a long pin-
Grey Fox


Fisher


Red Fox

Hern I haven't seen that before. I like it. That would take less pins to keep the tails open.

Backroads, Boco showed round head pins, I like the T-pins.
Right, less pins. Easy to center tail with push pin at bottom.

I've learned plenty from reading Boco's posts. He's a wealth of information.