An unexpected tenant has decided to make an ice-fishing shack its personal shortcut! Imagine this: you're out on the frozen lake, ready for a day of angling, when you hear a peculiar crunching sound from beneath your feet. This isn't just any noise; it's the sound of a resourceful otter discovering a rather convenient, man-made entrance to its aquatic playground.
Bruce Browne, an angler at Lac des Mille Lacs, experienced this exact scenario and was so surprised, he managed to capture it on video. He described the experience as "pretty interesting and exciting." He recounted, "I could hear a crunching noise coming from under the floor. I went back, looked down at the hole, and could just see his nose coming through. He was chewing away." As the otter's nose emerged, Browne was quick to grab his camera and began filming, capturing multiple videos of the curious visitor.
Browne, who has been ice-fishing at Lac des Mille Lacs for about six years, had seen otters in the area before, sliding across snowbanks. However, this was the first time one had ventured so close, and more importantly, so through his fishing setup. He speculates, "I guess he could smell the fish. Because every time you pull up a fish, it rubs on the side of the hole. He carved himself a big enough hole before he got through to come visit us." To ensure the otter doesn't fully enter his shack, Browne is diligent about replacing the lids on his ice holes, allowing the otter to travel between the lake and the underside of the shack, but not inside.
This isn't the only otter encounter reported in the area. Don Hamilton, another angler, also shared a video of an otter approaching him after he drove his truck onto the ice at the same lake. He described the encounter: "He pretty much ran right at me, and I'm trying to keep my puppy down because I didn't want to scare the otter off. He came right up to my door and looked me in the face, then just scurried off."
Hamilton has observed otters in larger groups, four or five strong, sliding across the ice, but never this close. He fondly remarked, "They're beautiful. They're smart. I've got a camp at Shebandowan, and they come up all the time. They steal our minnows but they're just beautiful to watch, and they're entertaining."
However, not everyone views otters with such amusement. Ken Wing, who manages operations at Shacks Landing, pointed out that otters can indeed be a nuisance. "Some guys, they put fish on stringers and drop them down into the water to keep them fresh, and their stringers are empty in the morning," he noted.
But here's where it gets interesting: how do these clever creatures manage to find such opportune access? According to the Ontario Fur Managers Association, otters have a varied diet, primarily consisting of fish, amphibians, crayfish, and other invertebrates. They might also munch on turtles, snakes, waterfowl, and muskrats, and even some vegetation in the warmer months. While often thought of as nocturnal, they are also quite active during the day, which explains why they might be spotted by anglers.
And this is the part most people miss: While it's easy to be charmed by their intelligence and adaptability, their presence can sometimes lead to unexpected challenges for human activities on the ice. Is it fair to call this otter a "tenant" when it's simply using a natural behavior to its advantage, or is it an unwelcome intruder disrupting the peace of ice-fishing? What are your thoughts on these resourceful river dwellers? Let us know in the comments below!
