Bait and lure for otter

What are you guys using for bait and lure for otter?

Don't need any unless you're setting pocket or dirthole sets for otter. Even then...no bait needed...just a curiosity-type lure (skunky, tonquin, mink musk). All bait will do is catch coons.

Set blind sets at crossovers and crawlouts.

I have caught them using shiny salmon skin wrapped around the trigger of a 330 suspended under ice. I hear a realistic fish lure with no hooks can work as well

Down here if you use bait the weather has to be cold as if it gets a little rancid the otters will turn their nose up at it. There is just too much fresh food to compete with. Normally if you are going to bait them a dirt hole or pocket set with beaver castor or bobcat gland lure will attract them. I like to make a mulitple pocket set with two to three holes with a trap in the middle. I put castor in one, bobcat in one, and maybe muskrat or mink in the other. They will go from hole to hole with thier head.

Like Swamp Wolf said, bait will catch coons. Focus on crossovers, toilets, runs, etc.

I carpet bomb the area they are working with bodygrips, snares and footholds. Sooner or later they will come flying into a trap.

Just had a thought...anyone ever just use foil on the trigger?

I’ve gotten a few otter under the ice this year in my beaver sets. Wanted to try baiting the trigger with a smelt or a Zman scented bait used for fishing. I would think it’d have to be scented because how well can they see in the dark, under snow covered ice? I’ve got some glow paint I haven’t tried yet either, say it glows for about a day…might bring it along this weekend lol.

How would scent be beneficial under water?

Being as can only use cage/swim through traps I have had success hanging fish carcass down stream flow of the trigger with trap completely submerged.

To the novice otter trapper my advice is always the same: leave the scent and bait notions for catching coons and muskrats. Think blind sets and look for where they travel, pinch points toilets etc. When you do that you can start to catch otter on a regular basis.

Muskrat carcass in a milk crate with a 330 in the opening has worked several times for me. I used that for Marina trapping. Make sure it's on a drowner as they tend to want to reach inside.

Bait and lure is for other critters. For productive otter sets do as "beaverpeeler" suggest.

Dont waste your time using all that gimmicky stuff. Make blind sets where they travel,at pinch points,or make pinch points like the Millette set,if you have the right locations to construct. That will catch every otter travelling a drainage.Gang set for otter and dont expect action right away as otter have fairly large home ranges,but always use the same routes when they come thru.Some places they only visit a few times in a season,other places as much as weekly.Pay attention to where and when you see otter sign in winter and you can often time them pretty close.
Late winter they really move on top.Dead beaver ponds are good spots for otter sets at this time of year.

I caught some with a fish wired in the back of a bucket set. I catch more setting crossovers, slides and channels though

Before they were legal to keep here, most incidentals were caught in baited pocket sets, baited with fish or fish based baits. To say bait won't catch them is just plain wrong, at least in this area. Now some people are targeting them in cross overs and such with body grippers since we can keep them now. That works well too. I had to add otters to the labels on my Shellfish Payback bait after multiple buyers commented they can't keep otters away from it. Now folks buy it to target otters in PVC pipe & elbows, smear sets and pockets.

I'm not saying that a bait can't catch an otter, but in my experience where I tried for years to catch otter (mostly unsuccessfully) baits were an extremely low percentage set more apt to catch other unwanteds rather than otter. Mostly otters ignored baits and other gizmos in my early experimentation.

Bait equals coon plain and simple. I target them In pinch points with conibears and have little problem getting my limit of four. A decent multi species day.

Hal Sullivan sums it up in his otter book to me. “ I don’t make otter sets, I find otter sets. “

Perfect!

I think everyone knows blinds sets are the best option for otter, but it seems like a lot of folks forget that not everyone traps with the same rules or habitat as others. Not everyone has beaver ponds and swamps to work with, many of us can’t use bodygrips unless they’re submerged. It can make finding good sets difficult. Theres always a spot or two that stand out, but throwing in a handful of “baited” sets doesn’t hurt either. The best set I’ve had was a pocket set dug right where they couldn’t possibly miss it. No bait or lure, it just was the perfect set up that they couldn’t help but check it out as they traveled a small creek. That one set caught four otter in 7or 8 days on a small creek thats barely ankle deep in places. Never stop looking for good blind sets, but some places just aren’t set up well.

This right here is spot on. Where I live we have a lot of otters. The area I live is where they were live trapped and shipped all over the U.S. I trap crawfish ponds and rice fields, marshes, swamps, rivers, bayous and ....I can't say you should only trap otters this way or that, as I use several different methods and it is all dependent on the otters. Blind sets are good for certain conditions, but there are times that a pocket set or dirt hole hammers them. Down here they love bobcat gland lure. I set 220's and 280's in the dry woods, catching them moving from one area to the other. I set snares, foot holds, and body grips. LIke I said before it all comes down to the otters. You might be in the area they are just passing through or you might be in the area where they actually set up shop. I'm very blessed as I live where we have a lot of otters, various terrain and hardly any trapping laws. When I set for otters its gloves off and I don't follow what the book says, I throw it out.

Good posts guys...for us otter rookies....much appreciated.

There is an old saying that says something to the effect of, "Some don't know what they don't know." I say this in reference to otters and bait. Otters, a lot of otters, can and are caught with bait. I wish it wasn't so but I catch several every year in baited pocket sets and have to let them go because our otter season isn't in yet. AND, if I wanted to catch otters in baited pockets, I would catch more if I set for them by moving the trap back away from the hole 3 or 4 inches instead of having it tight to the hole. Fish and muskrats are my baits that catch otters.

We don't have a lot of otters compared to Mississippi and other southern states but we have enough of them to be a real nuisance. This year I caught 10 otters in Ohio and 7 of them were caught in baited sets. Thankfully I missed at least that many more.

When I trapped Miss. I didn't use any bait because there were crossovers and runs everywhere. Here in Ohio, unless trapping in a beaver swamp, we don't have those kind of options.

Exactly. I catch more otters in a season then most do in a lifetime and it all comes down to where I'm trapping. Crawfish ponds its setting on crossovers and runs. In the 500,000 acre swamp that is my backyard you have to bait for them as there are no set routes. Its pretty easy trapping otters on small rivers and streams as you blind set sign. You get into the swamps where it takes you a hour boat ride and then another hour of polling a pirogue to get to the trappng grounds you better know how to set pocket sets as the otters have hundreds of square miles of ankle to waiste deep swamp it roams. They have food here 365 days a year without waterways freezing over. If you are catching them, keep doing it. It doesn't matter how you do it, just stack the bodies.

Otters are far more curious than they are hungry.

By their nature, that stands as a fact for most wildlife. They are very curious and opportunists. Some more than others. But still part of their makeup and those traits certainly contribute to their survival and demise at the same time. Things get tricky when those few get educated and begin to associate circumstances with experiences.

Here’s a double at pocket sets. Bluegills for bait.

Thanks for posting that for me Doug.

Those 2 otters didn't know that they couldn't be caught on bait.

Bait in the Midwest works on otter, but you better be willing to deal with a heckuva bunch of coon in the process.
That was fine and dandy when we had a coon market and I was going after them in conjunction anyway.

Dale Billingsley has some very good otter advice on YouTube. Specifically what lure type they really like on dry sets.