River otter at my farm

[dhaverstick]

I was at my farm for a couple of days to visit my dad and went squirrel hunting Monday morning. There is a ridge on the west side of our lower field that has a bunch of hickories and I figured it would be a good place to check out first. On my way there, I needed to cross the creek that runs through our place. It is mostly dry right now except for a few pockets of water. Something caught my eye in one of those pools and I realized it was a river otter making breakfast out of the minnows and crawdads that had no place to run to. This video is my attempt to film him while the horse flies made their breakfast out of me. Man, those things are bad this year! My video looks like a "Blair Witch Project" version of Wild Kingdom.

Darren

 

[Jason Snyder]

River otters are such a cool critter. It’s fun watching them fish.

 

[mxgsfmdpx]

River otters are such a cool critter. It’s fun watching them fish.

I got some of the most incredible photos and videos of a group of otters fishing a small lake in Alaska. They are incredibly efficient.

They even stole a fish from a bald eagle on the shoreline. Two of the otters used their bodies/tails to splash the eagle and annoy it. Once it flew off, 3 other otters went up and stole the fish. I got it on video.

Felt like a National Geographic video guy haha.

 

[Jason Snyder]

They are incredibly efficient.

I fished a steelhead run early one October morning. Worked down it once, switched lures, repeat. Not a single hit. Must not be fish in this run…

Family of otters comes upriver and in about two minutes had three steelhead on the bank

 

[mxgsfmdpx]

I fished a steelhead run early one October morning. Worked down it once, switched lures, repeat. Not a single hit. Must not be fish in this run…

Family of otters comes upriver and in about two minutes had three steelhead on the bank

Exactly! Their efficiency in the water is something incredible to watch. Me and the eagle had both fished that lake for about 4 hours and each of us finally caught one.

The otters came rolling in, strolled along the shore, hopped in the water, and within 60 seconds, 3 of the 5 otters had fish on the bank.