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Otters - What would you do?

G

Gareth Boycott

Active Member
I fished a stretch of the Hants Avon last night, arriving at the river at around 4.30pm. Settled into a swim and put a little bit of bait down through small PVA mesh bags. I was planning on staying til around 9.30pm.

At about 7.45pm there was a big swirl over the spot followed by an otter staring up at me. In the next 10 minutes two others appeared at the same time mid river straight in front of me. I gave it until 8.30pm before packing up as I found it tough to maintain optimism following the otter activity in my peg. In a situation such as this, what would you do:

1 - Stay where you are
2 - Move to a different swim (bearing in mind it was dark and I didn't have long left)
3 - Pack up there and then

I had contemplated moving swims but as I am fairly new to the stretch finding a new swim in the dark would have been tricky to say the least. Has anyone ever stayed put in the same swim and caught fish following such activity?

I would be interested to hear people's thought/experiences.

Cheers,

Gareth
 
You could always take some photos Gareth and say what a wonderful, welcome sight they are on our waterways :mad:
 
A fairly common occurance up here on the Yorkshire rivers, I actually disturbed two asleep on the bank yesterday afternoon and was surprised at how fast they can move on land. I tend to stay put and hope that they'll move on though I feel that they spook the fish for quite some time afterwards. Remember that they have a big territory so unless you move a long way then you'll probably see them again at some stage anyway.
 
I've watched an otter fishing and eating dace/small chub on the Severn then I moved into the swim and caught barbel within 20 minutes.
 
Stay put. I was on a social with a mate a couple of weeks ago and at around 9pm an otter popped up in the swim, stayed a minute or two then moved upstream. Almost straight away my mates rod slammed over and a nice chub came to the net and within half an hour i'd banked 2 barbel.
 
Stay put as advised above.

I wonder how barbel react to swans passing over their heads. They don't know that they are not predators and must through quite a big shadow on to the riverbed.
 
Steve M Brown said:
Mainly because most people dont sit quietly on a riverbank well into darkness............they ain't exactly rare Neil :rolleyes:
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It's a mixed blessing when I see them, but then I think for every Otter there is one less mink, and possibly a few barbel too, but hey at least it real.
 
Why does a rounded view seem elude some anglers still?
Might some have been vocal about the introduction of the pike?
 
Thanks for the replies chaps.

I must admit the first time I saw otters I was mesmerised but after several dozen sightings the 'magic' wears off a bit.

Ultimately when I go fishing my aim is to catch fish. Having otters surface right over my bait doesn't fill me with confidence in achieving that aim so I just wanted to know if people have had success under similar circumstances.

To know that people have caught barbel not long after otter sightings means I will be more inclined to say put in future as opposed to moving swims/packing up.

Cheers,

Gareth
 
I was fishing the Avon on a weeks trip, week before last, and the inevertable otter swam through my swim. Within an hour I banked a low double,..went back the following day only to have a mink run under the rod between the rests, bold as brass.
For the bird lovers,..same day I saw what I am pretty sure was a goshawk take out a tern,..any other Avon stalwarts seen goshawks around Somerley?
I spoke to another angler who said that last year he had a family of 5 otters swim under his rod,.. now that could certainly sap the confidence!:eek:
 
Steve M Brown said:
Mainly because most people dont sit quietly on a riverbank well into darkness............they ain't exactly rare Neil :rolleyes:
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This is rubbish. They are in my opinion localised to specific areas. I've not seen one despite being as quiet as you could imagine and seeing pretty much every other living creature at close quarters. Silly sweeping statement!
 
Lee Poultney said:
This is rubbish. They are in my opinion localised to specific areas. I've not seen one despite being as quiet as you could imagine and seeing pretty much every other living creature at close quarters. Silly sweeping statement!
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Oh dear Lee now that is a sweeping statement, as a Wavon regular, and yes I know you live close to the river, all I can say is that if I fish WELL into dark more often than not, I will see an otter come through my peg. Over the past few years I have fished (very hard) a number of stretches from above Stratford to below Bidford - but perhaps I just keep picking on their localised areas...... For the record I don't think they will have a huge effect on the middle and lower river (the upper is a different matter) - perhaps the EE's have BBQ them all down your way :).
 
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