While it was a slow day fishing, I did see a remarkable event (at least to me it was) five river otters floating down the river together, each rising up about 5 feet in front of me as they floated by. I have seen otters in the river before but only one maybe two at a time. They hung around for quite a while in the long pool I was fishing in. I am sure it did not do much for the fishing, at least where I was (i wouldn't hang around if I were a trout, although the visibility was pretty poor). I know otters can be voracious, they got into a pond my dad had in sonoma, and within a month the geese he had (big, 20 or 25 pound and nasty geese) were all gone, about 10 of 'em. I can only imagine what they do to the trout!. Anyway, quite a sight. No luck in that pond, but I did try a new spot and landed a fat 18 inch plus trout. Are these otters usually around or are our favorite trout about to be gobbled up by pack of travelling marauders?
The otters are always around. I have encountered them twice at Access #5 in the late evening. They were in a small pack, maybe five or six of them. Scared the heck out of me the first time I encountered them. They are quite stealthy. I hope to get a photo of them one these days.
I actually thought about getting out of the water when I first saw them, it was a shock, they were so close and appeared out of nowhere. By the time I calmed down and got my camera out, they were too far away for a good picture.
They are harmless, I've gotten maybe 10 feet from em when they were sleeping, Then they started hissing and spitting at me. They love to munch on those big crawdads, You can hear em. Also all those piles of crap you see on the rocks are from them as well, Notice the crawdad shells in it. The are pretty cool and rather curious.
you and your damn camera cappy, well thats my next investment for fish, a waterproof digital camera.
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Fishing isnt about catching fish, its not about who caught the most, or who caught the biggest, its about the experience that you have on the water, and the life long bonds you make with others on the journey to becoming a better person inside.
Hahaha, nice. One thing you see this time of year is a fish acting like they are hooked, tail dancing and jumping in arcs through the air. Chances are an otter is chasing them underwater. They are very good hunters. Matt I just developed some pics and have a couple for you. The 16" which was the "smaller" fish of the day has a huge gouge on it's side from an otter or osprey.
the 20"er that i landed on thursday had the same problem, teeth marks from an otter maybe mt lion or something like that. hardy fish i tell ya.
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Fishing isnt about catching fish, its not about who caught the most, or who caught the biggest, its about the experience that you have on the water, and the life long bonds you make with others on the journey to becoming a better person inside.
It could be spawning activity for sure, but I have seen it in other spots and talked to folks on the creek who have seen it too. If you saw the slash on this fish it's definitely the other.
I've defenitly seen otters chase fish and those fish can seriously jump when need be. And those otters are dam fast to. I also have seen big trout doing all kinds of crazy things this time of year, i even saw one beach himself. I posted about it last year, It was really crazy, But havent seen much of that this year yet.
Quit picking on the poor otters. They just eat crawdads and drink beer. I have seen several cormorants shooting out of the prime fishing spots lately. They shoot directly out of a pool and fly away. They can stay underwater for a long time and eat several fish at a time. They are very fast and are known fish killers. The ducks with a red mohawk also kill fish. It seems to be a big problem. A few months ago everyone was catching small trout. I haven't landed one of last years hatch in a while. Is anyone catching those little guys?
I too had a number of 6-10" wild fish (didn't know they were called parr marks, although familiar with the coloration and pattern) near #5 and in deep hole down from bridge. Mostly between Sept and Oct.
Refocused my attention to different areas in Nov and Dec, didn't seem to even see as many fish in this class. Didn't think much of it. Oops, forgot about a day I went "commando"...hands and knees to a deep 4' wide stretch, over grown..was pretty proud of myself, deep and steep banks, couldn't wade well, managed to hook a scrappy 8" wild one.
Also landed one with a pretty gnarley wound in the back. Otter or some foe definately had a go at it...the only surprising thing was that it was still feeding (took my fly) with an open wound like that. That was early Nov, about 16" fish.
-- Edited by Lahontan at 21:52, 2008-01-14
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"You tell yourself that it will be both educational and spiritually uplifting, as all imaginative excuses for goofing off are." John Gierach, "Music of the Spheres".
I caught an 18" fish with half of its gillplate missing. I caught another once with a huge hole in its side. You could see its internal organs. You'd be amazed at the wounds that some of these fish get. They have to continue to eat with these wounds or they'll die.
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"Nothing makes a fish bigger than almost being caught."
The small fish were there a few months ago, but it seems they have been chomped on by the predators. Maybe that is why only the biggest and fastest survive the low flows of winter.
If the small fish don't survive then why are we catching smaller ones in the summer and fall. The small ones are around, I caught a 10 incher on my first cast of the day 2 weeks ago.
