river otters?

[brandon4455]

okay, went to the creek today by my house and took a couple of pictures and looked for some bugs etc. and as i was looking up from lifting a rock i saw somthing brown floating down the river. thinking it was a log i freaked the heck out when it went under water :lol: i always thought we only had nutria around here no river otters.. and i am 100% sure thats what it was.. tried to get a pic but it would not stay still. it even came exploding out of the water once.. was pretty cool. it even tried getting a bit closer to me but i backed up and kept my distance,sure was a curious little fella. does anyone know of any river otters in the willamette valley? and will this guy be munching on my trout? really suprised to see one around here. :think:

 

[RunWithSasquatch]

Lots of otters and beavers

 

[mlw]

I've seen river otters in the valley and coastal streams. A pair off Lake Creek were quite vocal about telling me who was fishing there.
Michael

 

[colbypearson]

i saw the biggest river otter if have ever seen in a small pond outside of medford it was easily 5' long even though they dont really even get that big this one was huge

 

[shimano22]

I saw a pair of otters on ther wilson a few weeks ago

 

[Finneus Polebender]

Last year while fishing well a somewhat secret pond located within eugene / springfield city limits had one pop up no less than 5 ft from me ! We stared each other down I was having a hard time believing what I saw . this guy was easily 5 ft long head to end of tail , me frozen in my toon seat he sat there and looked at me his head almost as big as my labrador dog and canine teeth that were bigger than my dogs he then slipped under the water without a ripple . Just about the time I started realizing he had snuck up on me without a ripple and dissapeared the same way this curious and large otter came up almost within arms distance again scared the crap out of me , not due to any aggresion just did not like the idea of him sneaking up on me totally exposed in a toon like that. Needless to say I caught 0 fish that day in a place that I normally get at least a couple , pretty sure it was due to my curious shadow which had probably tailed me the whole trip and made sure every fish in the joint was hiding for dear life ! Not to mention I was looking over my shoulder the rest of the evening which was basically over as soon as I could get out of there. I Do not think they are a danger to people but I would certainly never tangle with one they have most impressive fangs !

 

[Modest_Man]

My dad had one try to steal his tackle so he wacked it in the head with a stick. Guess it had gotten used to peoples bait and handouts. Too bad I wasn't there that day...

 

[adambomb]

keep an eye out for these guys, I saw three of them cross the road one time between the Glen Avon and Pine creek bridges over the upper Molalla. They are called Fisher Cats.

 

[Finneus Polebender]

keep an eye out for these guys, I saw three of them cross the road one time between the Glen Avon and Pine creek bridges over the upper Molalla. They are called Fisher Cats.

Holy moly that is exactly what I saw bookin across my back field into heavy cover by my little pond just the other day . I couldnt figure out what it was to big to be a cat , no stripe and way to fast to be a skunk , yet there it went jet black and around the size of my small female lab. I am gonna have to see if I can get a pick of it . Do you know what they eat ,because the geese are down there laying and I saw a big pile of feathers on the trail that surrounds my little pond. I just hope they dont eat bass! LOL Seriously though gonna do some online research pronto .

 

[Finneus Polebender]

Man this explains a lot , they dont eat fish much luv everything runnin around out in my back field for dinner ,and right now is the height of the mating season ! wiki.answers.com › ... › Mammals › Land Mammals › Wild Cats

 

[brandon4455]

thanks for the help everyone. didn't know if they were common around here or not.

 

[waco]

I think they are everywhere i have seen one at The Sandy River!!!! funny thing was my friend was scare he thought it was a cougar!!! :lol: