So Fancy a fishing Holiday in Devon UK... You don't really want to hear the words Otter!
I Think we dodged a bullet!!!!
Yep the furry Fecker made an appearance at Cranford last year, I had a couple of guests saying they seen an otter... High alert, No dead fish or scales found but it was keeping me up at night as we've not had an otter visit in over 30 years! back then one day we were walking around the top fishing lake and to our horror came across 10-15 double figure carp all lying on the bank with chucks taken out of them!!!! Gutted!!!
This was well before Otters were a common sight, we put up an electric fence on the perimeter of the 3 fishing Lakes and if the critter visited again it was in for a shock!!!
Then one day in late summer Nigel one of our regular residents caught me and said Paul, I think I've seen an otter asleep on the top fishing lake https://www.cranfordcottages.com/fishing !!!!!!!! we went to investigate and jeez there lying on the bank fast asleep was a young female Otter ( I'll come to my diagnose in a mo!) I quickly tuned into Steve Erwin ( God rest he's soul) (I'm not religious, so why do you feel you have to say that....?) Grabbed a 42 inch Carp landing net and thought I'll slam dunk it over the top and wait for the mayhem to explode. Wild Creature and that Jazz!
So like a Ninja me and Nige crept up to sleeping beauty, and wham the net was over her!!!!! absolutely no movement what so ever..... Shit its dead was my first thought! then all of a sudden she slowly moved and dozerley tried to get into the lake, I knew straight away that something wasn't right and picked her up through the net and took her back to Cranford HQ, much to Niki & Archies's amazement, did a quick google and spoke to a chap called Dave at the UK Wild Otter Trust. I explained the situation that we are a private residents only fishery in wonderful North Devon and said what should I do?
He said I'll be with you in 10 mins??? how's ya luck !! There based 10 miles away. So Dave turned up and took the young furry away, he later phoned and explained that it looks like it had been hit by a car and they had to put her to sleep..... Now its a quandary for a fishery as I do love the countryside and wildlife but I don't want anything thats gonna damage or have a meal on our fish!!!
Otters are on the increase and Dave kindly offered to come and have a look at our grounds and what we could do to prevent another visit. So the Young otter was probably about one years old and its parents had kick it out of there territory and she was one the look out for new real estate.
Cranford is a special spot but jog on otters!
I asked the question what if we get another visit and can I trap it? NO! can you Trap it? YES! perfect!!!! There's me thinking if another furry came along Dave would trap it and send it on its merry way to Exmoor or somewhere miles away (they have a 20 mile radius). But the answer was if we were to catch an otter you have to have a fence and we'll release it the other side of the fence!!!! Jeez we need a fence!!!
Now if anyone is looking for a business opportunity Otter fencing is a cash cow, some of the quotes where £20k plus! Dave explained that we should do it ourselves for a fraction of the cost, just my labour! he gave me detailed plans and now if we get a visit, firstly it wont be able to get in. Ha! secondly if it did we could move it on safely!!!
Has it taken any fish!!!! we found 2 eaten bream and thats it! The Herons do more damage, but it did get me thinking, I've just order 500 tench for the middle fishing lake which will be with us next winter... Long waiting list for Tench and we'll put a 100 smaller carp around the 2lb stamp in the bottom pool, we're due a restock!
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