foot hold for otter

While checking my bobcat blind sets after work today I came across a fresh otter hole as I have my traps on a small creek where the cats have been traveling. Do I put a blind set next to the hole? I did see where it did its job. Not much of a toilet as the hole wasn't there yesterday. My new MB550 are in the dish washer now. I have MB 650 but not sure if they are to big for otter. Any thoughts appreciated

You got enough water to drown him?That'd be the deciding factor for me.

dirt hole with fox gland lure will work, the 550's will hold otter just fine.

They're not too big....Ive Nailed otter in them....swivel them up

But like cotton said ...550s work too

Both will work.I would want a middle swivel and a swivel on both ends of the chain.

a chain made of swivels wouldn't be overkill for otters

I think otter are probably the strongest, toughest animal that you are ever likely to trap. If caught on the ground have a strong trap and pay a lot of attention to how the trap is fastened.
I use a #48 Newhouse with six feet of twist link chain on my dry-land sets.

That'll do it Mark!!

Agree with that statement. People tend to underestimate how tough they truly are.

Cotton is correct - The more swivels the better!

Here's one in a victor 3N

Nice Otter Blak spot

Nice looking otter

Thanks!

Try releaseing them. Here in my part of Pa we have no choice and we have a lot of otters. The zone above me had a season last year so I bought a permit but there is no season now there this year. Sooo no otter for me this year......jk

I have had almost no luck at all in holding otter in the 550's on dry land. With their tapered feet they pull out.

650 is not too big for otter.

I have caught a quite a few as incidentals in Duke 1 1/2's and have yet to have one pull out. While I would not target otters with these it tells me that a strong trap that does not have offset jaws should be sufficient with enough swivels and proper staking. I would think the 550's would be great as long as they did not have offset jaws. Many were caught for transplanting with the 11's.
I also feel that because of the way the otter is constructed that a bigger trap does not cause any unnecessary damage as I have not seen any with the MB 750, although these were water sets.

My go to foothold trap for trapping otter in the water is the #14 jump.

i think ya forgot to send the coordinates.

I'd figure a duke 3 regular jaw would be sufficient?

Are you planning on resetting after a catch? Would otter shy away from a circle of their own species or of non-targets (coon etc)?

I've caught and held 3 otter in 1.5s in pocket sets for coon....the otter seem to feel safe along a bank on a river....they weren't fighting it just waiting. I too would use the mb650 reg jaw no problem.