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| This morning I hit the water with a sucker for the first time this year. Had planned to spend time on an inside turn where I have done well in the past in the fall. However, as I got closer I realized the splashes I saw in the weeds were not ducks but a family of otters chasing and eating fish. I stayed away and kept an eye on the otters until they had moved quite far away.
See otters from time to time when casting but first time I have encountered when dragging a sucker. They are bold predators and my experience is they are not afraid of people in boats. Wonder if they would try and grab a sucker close to a boat? |
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Posts: 1194
| I would not put it past them, I've had a Loon try to get my sucker. |
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Posts: 64
| Not sure about otters, but dolphins (the mammal kind) are really, really good at eating everything except the hook when you use live bait. |
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Posts: 1202
Location: Walker, MN | They like swimmers' legs |
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Location: PA Angler | We’ve had otter attacks on people already they can be territorial at times. |
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Posts: 94
| Otters are psychos. Cute, but lunatics. |
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Posts: 1194
| When I lived in California we went out on a boat with ultra lights and every once in a while a Seal would grab a hooked Mackerel and if you didn't put your a hand on the spool to snap your line you would spooled in a second flat. |
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| bloatlord - 10/12/2023 10:21 AM
Otters are psychos. Cute, but lunatics.
The idea of trying to get a hook out of one curls my toes. I watched one climb up on my dock last fall and stay there until it had eaten a turtle that had to be 8" across. I could hear the shell crunch from 60' away. They have some kind of bite. |
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Posts: 1194
| We got the brain power, animals in the wild kingdom are way stronger than us. |
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Posts: 490
Location: NW WI | I wouldn't be too worried about it myself, they're smart. Never hung live bait by em before, but casting i regularly get snorted at and they leave. If people are feeding em though- than u you have a different story I'll bet. Immature loons this time of year I'm more concerned about-U can play fetch with them flying water Labradors. Otters haven't affected my fishing in the sense of scaring anything off for me. So I I'd say if ur motives outweigh the risk, just keep your sucker close and keep an eye out. I think you will know if they're making a move for your sucker. |
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Posts: 8719
| I have it on good authority they are smart enough to figure out how to work the latch on a sucker cage. Also know first hand that a bucket with a lid and a rock on the lid is no match for them, either. They did leave me the heads, though. That was nice of them...
Do you know what else is a crafty bait bucket raiding little varmint? Minks. Right in front of me in broad daylight like I wasn't even there.
Edited by esoxaddict 10/13/2023 10:00 AM
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Posts: 105
| Simple solution. Just don't use suckers. Cast with artificial lures instead. Problem solved. |
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Posts: 37
Location: Lower Peninsula | Never had a problem with otters but I have watched a musky follow a small muskrat around for a good minute. The muskrat didn’t even know how close he was to death. The musky was probably too small to eat him but who knows.
The other day I had a large seagull try to grab my glider in its talon’s subsurface. I didn’t realize what was happening at first because it started at the beginning of my cast. Luckily it gave up after like 30 seconds and flew away and didn’t get hooked. |
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| esoxaddict - 10/13/2023 9:57 AM
I have it on good authority they are smart enough to figure out how to work the latch on a sucker cage. Also know first hand that a bucket with a lid and a rock on the lid is no match for them, either. They did leave me the heads, though. That was nice of them...
Do you know what else is a crafty bait bucket raiding little varmint? Minks. Right in front of me in broad daylight like I wasn't even there.
Yes, watched an otter on top of my live box with suckers in it. He got the latch undone, but I had slid it under the dock, which took some effort and he could not raise the lid as a result. He spent a good ten minutes trying to figure out how to get at them before giving up. But the hook and loop latch was no problem. Guy I know fishes with suckers a lot and he has a big live box. He put a padlock on it. So far the otters have not figured out the combination. |
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Posts: 105
| RikkiTikkii - 10/16/2023 10:44 AM
Never had a problem with otters but I have watched a musky follow a small muskrat around for a good minute. The muskrat didn’t even know how close he was to death. The musky was probably too small to eat him but who knows.
The other day I had a large seagull try to grab my glider in its talon’s subsurface. I didn’t realize what was happening at first because it started at the beginning of my cast. Luckily it gave up after like 30 seconds and flew away and didn’t get hooked.
Seagulls don't have talons. They have webbed feet like a duck. |
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| gimruis - 10/16/2023 12:53 PM
RikkiTikkii - 10/16/2023 10:44 AM
Never had a problem with otters but I have watched a musky follow a small muskrat around for a good minute. The muskrat didn’t even know how close he was to death. The musky was probably too small to eat him but who knows.
The other day I had a large seagull try to grab my glider in its talon’s subsurface. I didn’t realize what was happening at first because it started at the beginning of my cast. Luckily it gave up after like 30 seconds and flew away and didn’t get hooked.
Seagulls don't have talons. They have webbed feet like a duck.
It may not qualify as a "talon" but sea gulls have something similar that, despite the webbing, allows them to grasp and carry fairly heavy food. In the park below my office when I worked in Marquette, overlooking the harbor, saw seagulls carry off lunch bags, sandwiches, etc. from folks trying to eat lunch in the park. They will take hamburgers right off the grill. |
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Posts: 105
| Not even close to talons.
Edited by gimruis 10/17/2023 9:03 AM
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| I have watched Black Backed Gulls snatch slices of bread out of mid air when thrown by an idiot, grab sandwiches off a table, burgers off the grill. You can quibble about the correct nomenclature but they work quite well for grasping. Fishing with my then young kids along Lake Superior, saw them swoop down and grab perch off the surface when they were released. Every bit as effective at that maneuver as an eagle. Can't carry weight that an eagle does, but they can grab and carry. |
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Posts: 734
| There's been a few times i've seen otters on my dock, along with other critters, eating their meals that they have caught. Only problem I have is what comes after they digest it. What a mess! Need a good rain to clean it off. Kdawg |
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Posts: 20180
Location: oswego, il | If you did accidentally hook an otter you are not unhooking it, cut the line.
Unhooked a seagull before. It wasn't a big deal but all 500 gulls on the lake circled us until we set it free. |
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| kdawg - 10/17/2023 9:36 AM
There's been a few times i've seen otters on my dock, along with other critters, eating their meals that they have caught. Only problem I have is what comes after they digest it. What a mess! Need a good rain to clean it off. Kdawg
LOL, I just use a bucket and a broom. My sister worked as quality control manager for a seafood processing plant in Alaska for many years at a remote location. She said a tech from the fish and wildlife service told them the reason the otters were repeatedly taking a dump on a stretch of land down by the water was to let other otters know there was food in the area. So, her theory is that when the otters take a dump on my dock, it is the otter equivalent of two thumbs up for fishing around my dock and letting other otters know this was a good place to chow down. Kind of like getting five stars on Facebook review. |
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Posts: 1194
| On the same day as my above story a Seagull grabed my Anchovy as it hit the water a flew off, I reeled it in with a utra light and with two sets of hands we had easy time unhooking it. Reeling it in was like flying a kite. |
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Posts: 8719
| I've had to unhook a few aquatic birds over the years. Some old fart down in FL showed me a trick: Cover it's head with a towel so it can't see and it will basically just sit there while you unhook it. Still a 3 handed job, but it keeps 'em from trying to impale you. Works with terns and seagulls, anyway. Probably loons, too. If I ever have to unhook an otter, I'm gonna make sure its dead first. |
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Posts: 1261
Location: Stevens Point, Wi. | Too bad Norm Wild isn't active on here. He could retell his adventure when he hooked a beaver. |
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Posts: 479
Location: Northern Illinois | My buddy hooked a water moccasin once. We couldn't get it off so we slid one of those heavy lure knockers down the line and drowned it. After 15 or 20 minutes he reeled up the carcass and unhooked it. Those things have tough skin. It would have never come unhooked. |
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