Bterrill

It is bad fellas. I'm trying to organize angler surveys because our DNR has no idea the impact. Here is a video in January of about a dozen smalllies eaten by river otter and left discarded on the ice. Half were said to have been 15"+ https://www.instagram.com/reel/C2Z9kNMrpjS/

Riling up the entire fishing community and alerting trappers. Trap yourself....

How do you find otter sign? Typically, from the scat, tracks, slides or holes. Scat is almost always a communal area on river islands or sandbars. You'll see cleared areas with piles of dark gray to black feces filled with fish scales, in winter and crawfish, feather, fur parts in summer. Dens tend to be taken over beaver dens, where holes look unkempt and trees haven't been gnawed in a while. Yes, the execute beavers for their dens.

These catfish heads were giant. Likely 30" channel catfish.

I aim to increase public knowledge. Ease regulations and limits on trapping and hopefully get more folks to do it.

Dozens of scat piles

Eric. I've now seen 15 on the year. It is REALLY bad. Talked to a menonnite man who lives on of our small rivers. He said the families along Deer creek used to snare suckers through the ice. They have all but disappeared with the massive appearance of river otters there. Smallmouth population taken a hit as well. They kill beavers and take over the dens. He watched one otter completely eat 6 large fish over an hour. They now trap them and just flat out shoot them on site was implied. 20231210_142533.mp4

I've counted 14 I've sighted this year. Carp and suckers nearly gone from many streams. Doesn't always correlate with reduced bass catch rate. Removing rough fish could increase smb. Sugar creek smallmouth are wayyyy down. So much so it is now one of my worst big fish streams. They do eat craws in warm months immediately switch to fish when they get sluggish. Can see it in the scat. All craw parts from June October, with some birds and hairy creatures too Very concerning this is a tsunami brewing under our noses.

Here's my thing Rob. If they can annihilate ponds why wouldn't a river otter family do the same in rivers and creeks? Since I started this thread, I've been tracking river otter scat on many rivers. Got one confirmed sighting this weekend. Remember they are mainly nocturnal. very concerned not just for the smallmouth, but that fishing is just steadily getting worse, nay, not the fishing, pools after pools that used to be teaming with fish of all kinds are mostly empty except for a few small stragglers. There are some rivers that have not had sightings, and so far the common denominator seems to be lots of raw sewage. Remember we have a lot of shallow clear creeks and rivers like the Vermillion in IL. Just concerned that this may be under the radar except in MO, where they were eating trout. Too many fisheries I counted on have gone dark.

Here's another MO DNR article: https://mdc.mo.gov/magazines/conservationist/1999-11/controversy-times-plenty

They are. However, otters like dolphins, have a.....dark side. I'll let you do your own research The problem is how much fish they eat and that they eat bigger fish. They can literally eat most of the fish in these streams and move on. Often moving in families of 3-8 by night. One otter likely eats 50lbs of smallmouth bass a year.

Here's a Missouri smb creek angler/trapper and his take on river otter lethality.

Mark, also note the crawfish comment includes a comment as having lots of crawfish i Ozark streams. Not all of our streams have that kind of habitat or crawfish population. I'd guess they just keep eating fish. I also read they are great at sensing vibrations and seeing in muddy water and at night. There is no upper limit in terms of size of what they will kill. Found a video of one gutting a 30lbs snapping turtle....

Very concerning Mark. And Missouri, is arguably the state who is ahead in realizing the impact on public rivers! I think our own state will never make this kind of admission. Think if they have this much impact on ponds, what are they doing to rivers that have no fish surveys, and next to no one complaining, anglers that blame habitat, catch and take before they blame an animal that is apex at removing fish from rivers. I hate to be the one to lead this, because they really are intelligent, cute animals. The more I'm posting about this, the more I'm getting comments from anglers how areas visited by river otters now seem to have no fish on all sides of our state. Catch 22 in that the public LOVES otters. Unaware they are a river delete button.