oosik
Epic Contributor
View attachment 646991 Looking off my front porch - across my little lake. Five acres @ 80' deep - five acres of cattails, down at the far end. It's stocked with large & small mouth bass. The one Blue Heron I might get doesn't stay long enough to do much damage. Besides he has a VERY limited area he can work in. Water depth right at the cliffs is 45'. It drops off to 80' out in the center. Basaltic lava cliffs - full length - both sides.
Almost every winter I get a pair of otters. Folks come out to watch them on the ice. I've been told they are river otters. Odd - the closest river is more than 50 miles away.
They will stay a week or so. Eventually they make a fantastic snow slide - down off the cliffs, in one area where the slope is more gentle. All day long - hump up to the top of the slide and down they go. Out maybe 40 to 50 feet onto the lake ice.
They will eat bass while here. I would guess over a week they probably eat 500 to 600 bass. The bald eagles & magpies gather and join in also. It becomes a real circus. In the late afternoon - it's dark - stand out on the porch and you can hear them chomping bass. Sounds just like a kid eating a dry ice cream cone.
All this chomping & smacking doesn't upset me one bit. Biggest problem is overpopulation of bass in the little lake. There is alway a TREMENDOUS spawning of bass - every spring. I row around the lake in the late spring - clouds & clouds of yolk-sac bass everywhere.
Almost every winter I get a pair of otters. Folks come out to watch them on the ice. I've been told they are river otters. Odd - the closest river is more than 50 miles away.
They will stay a week or so. Eventually they make a fantastic snow slide - down off the cliffs, in one area where the slope is more gentle. All day long - hump up to the top of the slide and down they go. Out maybe 40 to 50 feet onto the lake ice.
They will eat bass while here. I would guess over a week they probably eat 500 to 600 bass. The bald eagles & magpies gather and join in also. It becomes a real circus. In the late afternoon - it's dark - stand out on the porch and you can hear them chomping bass. Sounds just like a kid eating a dry ice cream cone.
All this chomping & smacking doesn't upset me one bit. Biggest problem is overpopulation of bass in the little lake. There is alway a TREMENDOUS spawning of bass - every spring. I row around the lake in the late spring - clouds & clouds of yolk-sac bass everywhere.
