Otter tails

I notice most otters I see at the sales out west have tails that are stretched fairly narrow, and/or stretched with just a few nails as if it's not an important part of the pelt. Wanted to show you how I stretch the tails and why.

One of the main markets for otter pelts in the west is the pow wow trade where they're being used for hair ties. They cut the pelts into 1.5 inch (aprox) strips and charge by the linear inch. Longer strips are desired. Therefor, with a wide tail they can get at least 2 or 3 longer strips off that pelt. One of our main buyers has stated that tails (as I do them) are worth at least $15 more than narrow stretched ones. Often times he doesn't even bid on the narrow tail ones.

My otters are almost always the high bid otters on a sale or tied for high bid.


Nailing it out. Notice I pull the ankle notch over as far as I can to the edge of the board.


And the finished product ready to dry.

Should have mentioned that pleating the tails that was once a fad is definitely not wanted. Long and wide.

that is correct from what i have heard they will dock you for having tails on otter not stretched properly

We as trappers should always pay attention to the wants of the current market. Just like the Nevada stretch for bobcats is now the norm.

Good stuff, as always BP.

I had 5 in GF. My tails are similar to BP. We will see how they did again this year.

nice thanks

I agree - pleated tails is a big no-no. Not only do they look ugly but they have a tendency to develop slip spots in the dressing process.

In today’s market, a dressed otter without a good tail is like……….

Just what is considered the Nevada stretch

I’ll add one to BPs beauty.

Can’t rotate sorry

That's the stuff mud. Pretty otter! Our buyer likes the darker furred ones so I think you'll do good with yours, as usual.

Mainly it's leaving the front legs on the pelt all the way to the paw and slipping coat hangers in there for drying them. It shows off the beautiful dark bands on the underside of those front legs.

Ok , thanks, lol been doing that for years

I think most do now, especially in the western states. But it wasn't always that way.

One does not realize how much goes into prep for a " pow-wow " regalia and what is required. From red squirrels to weasels to porky hair. Each tribe has unique things so just pay attention.
There is a-lot of money burning a hole is some ones pocket

Great job Carl, good composition, and you prove the old adage, a picture is worth a thousand words! You probably made the folks that are paying attention good money!

Got any belly pics of those otter? I've tried stretching the tail base wide, but hated the way the belly looked.

The buyer I am referring to here does not desire a large belly cut-out.

Great post. I used to pleat, had a guy that worked at NAFA tell me a funny story once. Said a Chinese buyer picked up an otter at a sale, flipped it over quickly and the tail caught him just right in the face. Said the otter was thrown back down and the buyer was upset lol. After that , he started pleating the tails. Great fur handler too, I learned a lot from him.

I got the itch to do some water trapping this spring, my daughter and I set out a line for rats and otter. Hadn’t trapped them real hard in a few years, and it was obvious. Didn’t take me long at all to reach 10 ( our limit in MD). I skinned and froze them all, with plans on shipping them to the tannery, but now I’m debating on putting half of them up to sell. Always enjoy otter trapping, and the fur handling as well. A lot of work but they’re beautiful on a board. Great put up peeler and mud.

Nice work, beeverpeeler. T4E- I see you are still going at it as strong ( ;)) as ever. As usual, beautiful fur. I never did make it over to see you, even though my last 8 years was contracting for Seaplanes! Glad to see your stacking, even with the weak winter. Stay safe, and good fishing.

So is the native market that deep? For a period pleating tails was the norm, at least that was what we were told.
Same with mink. Has this changed for a niche market?,..I dont know ,..it seems we throw a rock in either direction and we need to rethink our put up.

Trapped4ever, I was hoping you would chime in and share a pic of those mouth watering Alaska hogs! For those that don't know, the otters that live in coastal estuaries with rich food like up Alaska way get huge. It probably is genetics at play as well. Goldberg used to have a bin for his Alaska otters and the first time I saw a bunch of fur out 50-60" X 10-12" wide otters from Alaska I about fell over. Thought Goldberg was dealing in sea otters.

I don't know how deep the market is but it has been around for a long time and doesn't seem to have the peaks and valleys like some of the other markets. No matter what market you sell into; wide long tails will not hurt you. Pleated tails on the other hand will kill you for the western otter market.

In my opinion, not pleating tails seems to be the new norm for all otter markets. The native market is not deep enough to absorb all the otter produced in the US. When you are selling pelts to the Chinese market, useable square inches is important. So an unpleated tail on otter gives them more useable inches.

Mink is a different story, wild mink seem to be trending away from pleating. Pleating ranch mink tails is still fairly common. I think one reason is that ranch mink are processed by the 100s (1000s) at commercial operations and they have probably figured out a way to automate the process of pleating the tails (along with other steps being automated). Whereas a trapper puts up mink pelts one at a time.

Thank you both, beaverpeeler and wissmiss. But now I have to ask,..does an unpleated tail dress out larger?

Not sure I understand the question. As a general rule, there is a certain amount of shrinkage in the dressing process. So the entire otter pelt including the unpleated tail will be slightly smaller when dressed. The original size is recovered when the dressed pelt is relaxed and stretched.

I asked Dennis (our main otter buyer) this same question. He says YES. I'm in no position to argue because he's had thousands of otters dressed over the last decade or so.

Thanks BP. I'm still a work in progress, iffn I get another this season I'll definitely rethink my process. Until then, this is how mine usually turn out, the windows are tall, but haven't figured out how to shrink them down...might be my open cut.

Beautiful Work BP

I was talking to Dennis this weekend and he stressed that wide tail stretch and no pleating. I have always done a wide tail stretch, it was how I learned as a kid, but it was nice to have it confirmed. He said that pleating the tail it comes back about half the length from the dressing process. He also stated he liked the feet done the way you do them mud. He said if the feet are balled up and not laid out flat he just takes a pocket knife and whacks them off, but if they are laid open and properly dried he adds 5-15 dollars to the price. Unfortunately he said he didn't need a lot of otters right now and was only bidding on a few good ones at the sale and I don't think otters did as well as they have the last few years. I have not done otters with feet on them, but probably will the next ones I do.

Thanks for the feedback.. hopefully he was interested in mine again. Truth be told, one of mine I did not care for. Leather was different for some reason to me. But I did send 5 with claws on like I do.

I use otter feet in my crafting. It is easy to dry them flat but takes a bit more effort as you need to stretch them as they dry. If you get as much as Carl said added to the price. A few minutes work over a few days makes it worth it.
It may also make a difference in that the buyer that pays more will pay more for your otter rather than buying someone else's.
Otter feet are easy to skin also.
Adding feet and tail to a bag can add $50 to the price.
Another thing to look at when trying to get good money from craft buyers is to cut the ears at the skull. This would go for any skin. A well put up face can add dollars also.

I was so busy this year I didn't hardly get to look at the fur. I bought a fur buyer license this year for the first time, thinking I might buy something for the wife, and didn't even make a bid. The conversation with Dennis took place at about three in the morning. The only time I even seen the grease fur was as it was coming across the table in the check in process. It went much smoother than sales in years past, and all buyers were loaded and out of there long before dark Sunday (last year it was like 11 pm) but the sheer volume of fur was unbelievable and those of us that volunteered to help were too busy to think. Friday I started at 6:30 and never took a break except to pee until almost 9 pm when Rusty's wife came and got me and told me to go eat, that someone would cover for me while I ate.