Otters are so friendly!!

[Ham]

👀

[snagged in outlet 3]

38 minutes ago, jdmidwest said:

You may need to back it up with proof. 

Those pictures are enough proof for me!    Heck they’re enough for ME to shoot the next one I see.   😬

[Ryan Miloshewski]

Shot two with a .22/50 Howa back to back on ice one year. Glorious results. 

[FishnDave]

Based on the original post, and other stories shared here, is the pattern that the otters get aggressive in the evenings/after dark time frame?

[Mitch f]

57 minutes ago, FishnDave said:

Based on the original post, and other stories shared here, is the pattern that the otters get aggressive in the evenings/after dark time frame?

Great question… I’ve heard they’re very protective of their young also

[BilletHead]

       A smile is needed this morning. I'm going to give you all one. Yes, related to the otter post. 

  So more of this story of why I was doing what I was doing will be on another post but here is the otter story. This is really a factual story That happened early last week.

   I was wading this small stream in hip boots. One of those 60-degree mornings. working my way upstream I was startled by a commotion on the bank ahead of me about fifteen yards away. Off the high weedy bank bailed off four young otters. Twice the size of a mature mink and a quarter the size of a full-grown otter. It gave me the chills after reading this thread as I scanned around for the momma. They swam out and gave me the stink eye heads up they disappeared around a bend in the stream. I relaxed some but they were in my mind. Worked my way up some more I seen three little racoons on a gravel bar. I did see the place the otter had been lounging in some grass.  So, I go about my business farther up around the bend. I work along and notice this cut bank with a giant root wad including a tree leaning and about to fall off the bank. Got closer and ker splash ten yards away those otters went into the water from the root rod. I had the ebee jeebies then. Same deal they swam ahead of me until out of sight. No momma but was thinking just what I would do if attacked. Got a clip knife on my pocket kept surgical sharp. Water was getting deeper as I got closer. Had to work through some sticks and logs. By then about to go over hip boots. I stood there trying to decide how to go around this mess when I heard a sound like a toilet flushing left of me and a vortex of water movement. I screamed like a little girl and swatted the fly rod on the water when A giant beaver appeared in the clear water and went right across my boot tips. Scared the living daylights out of me. In all this I have no idea how I managed not to go over my hip boots or fall in. when I quit shaking, I turned around and worked back the other way.  I kept looking over my shoulder as I went. Too many surprises this morning. 

[fishinwrench]

Funny! 😁 

I was wading at Manito one Spring Flyfishing for bluegill, when a beaver came swimming by.  I said "Hi Buddy" in a very friendly way......but then he/she turned towards me, sped up, and went underwater.   I suddenly had a vision of it gnawing at my leg through my rubber hip boots, and I leaped out of that knee deep mucky water back up into the bank like spiderman.   

I've never moved so gracefully in my life. And my heart was pounding like a drum. 😅 

The beaver never resurfaced....so my fishing was limited to the bank for the rest of the afternoon.   

[Al Agnew]

I was wading in waist deep water along an undercut bank when a beaver shot out from under the bank and by me, glancing off my leg.  Scared the bejeebers out of me!

[BilletHead]

17 hours ago, Al Agnew said:

I was wading in waist deep water along an undercut bank when a beaver shot out from under the bank and by me, glancing off my leg.  Scared the bejeebers out of me!

                Yea but did you scream like a little girl? 😃 I did !

[FishnDave]

I was wading back upstream after fishing one evening on a Smallmouth Bass stream in north central Illinois.  Extremely dark out, must have been no moon that night.  Anyway, I hear some quick rustling in the brush on the top of the drop-off on my left, then a huge splash in the water.  I'm sure it was a beaver, but it took much too long for my brain to decide it was anything other than a big alligator.  I knew it couldn't be a gator, but it sure SOUNDED like one!  🥺  Ugh.