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MY FIRST EXPERIENCE IN OTTER TRAPPING | |
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MY FIRST EXPERIENCE IN OTTER TRAPPING
One day in the fall I was out in the haunts for partridge late in the bird hunting season. My old bird dog "Dan" flushed a bird, which carried us down by the end of a small lake called Pistol Pond. I suddenly came upon a spot of dark, thick underbrush, and looking for my bird I had just shot at, I discovered to my great surprise, an otter slide. "Well," said I to myself, "guess I will have a trap in there right away." So on November 1st I took my traps and hatchet, "Old Dan" following at my heels. I had not gone far when Dan strayed into the brush. When he came back of course it was with a rush and he ran up against my swinging hatchet and cut a gash the whole length of his face. We were about a mile and a half from the trolley, but I rushed him back and took the car for the veterinary's.- This hindered me a day or two, so I did not get my traps set for the otter until after November 1st. I tended my traps frequently for three months, meanwhile catching several muskrats and a mink in my traps and of course this disturbed the otter trapping, as they are a suspicious animal.
One day in February, a neighbor from town was fishing on this pond, where my traps were set, and reported having seen an otter on the ice. So I concluded it was time to be tending to my traps. On going up to the pond I found that the otter had moved to a larger lake, called Walker Pond, about one mile above. When the news spread that there had been an otter seen, it woke up an old otter trapper, living about two miles from me, and one. I have trapped and passed many pleasant hours with. Well, to cut my story short, we found ourselves trapping on the same waters and after the same animals. The old gentleman went one day and found he had caught the otter and he had pulled out the jaws of the trap and gone. About a week after, he visited his traps again and found nothing doing, so thought he would go home by way of my traps. A light snow had fallen the nigh1 before, and he could hardly tell where my traps were. Not wanting to step too near to disturb the sets, he stepped upon a little mound and stood there a minute or two, looking for any sign that might present itself, but without results, so returned home. The next day we went to the lake together, visiting my traps first. Going up to the little mound where my friend had stood the day before, the snow had melted and on further investigation we found the otter frozen in my trap. We looked around and concluded there was a mate, as we found several slides. We fixed up our traps and agreed to trap for this one together. So he would visit the trap one time and I the next. In the course of two weeks my friend was making his rounds, and found he had an otter's toe in one of his traps. On going to the next trap, which was mine, he found the otter, minus a toe. This one was alive and somewhat twisted up in the brush.
They can put up a hard fight when cornered; but my friend knew how to handle him, as he has caught several in his day. This one measured five feet one inch. The first one four feet and a half. Otter are hard to catch. Traps are used without bait or scent. All possible tracks or scent from the human body must be destroyed.
T. S. Williams,
Worcester Co., Mass.
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