Otis Fishing Report for September 23, 2023: Day breaks over the Land of Katmai just after 7:30 a.m. and while we have no bears in the River Watch frame at that moment, we’ve got the most adorable ducks and jumping salmon. It’s gonna be a great day!
About quarter after 8:00 a.m., Otis appears on Kat’s River View meandering fishing his way to somewhere. He passes under the bridge and Snorkel Fishes a few minutes and then Periscopes his way off cam.
Another 15 minutes later, we catch Otis with his snout in the water from afar. He’s so far away that at first, it’s hard to tell what’s going on there, and then our CamOp zooms in, and we see it. Is that a… wiggle?! Why, yes, it is — FISH! (It only takes a *little* self-wiggle, folks!) Check it out here in this GIF by BLAIR-55!
Otis snuggles up to the high grasses, assumes his River Fish Eating Position and Breakfish in Bed is served!
He meanders around *very* focused on the water. Then our boy pounces a serious fish-pounce, but the salmon apparently negotiates his way out and Otis moseys along. He continues Meander Fishing with some bits of Meander Snorkeling, and picks up snacks and then bigger snacks that looked to be a big ol’ fish-sized, long-time snack, but not a wiggler. Still, it’s eats, and that’s what we’re counting!
Otis is munching his way through a little Snack Cache back there and while this snack is not worth getting a new scar over, this looks like it might be interesting…
But it isn’t. Who Bear goes around Otis and Otis wanders away from prying eyes for a while Around the Block. He’s still meandering when he comes back around the front side of the little River Watch island and snacking along his way. He hits up the Snack Cache again and pauses to sniff the air and enjoy the sunshiny day.
We’re treated to a quick hit of Otis periodically, as he wanders the River, including many of those quick hits with his mouthful. Here is one such moment immediately following a rather large edible undertaking which we called FISH. Not sure which is better — his round face or that he’s chewing! (Surprisingly, no, he’s not telling Who Bear to get off his lawn!)
Otis continues to meander the day away and we find ourselves wondering: Are we sure Otis doesn’t hail from Idaho? Because he sure is Russet Potato Shaped as he lays on the fat! Ba da bing!
Spud-Shaped Otis is off cams for quite a while — well deserved, whether fishing or snoozling — and when he appears just a short while ago, he’s delightfully eating what appears to be a whole fish again! We couldn’t see the catch OR the body language, so we kinda think it was fish, but we’re calling it a DOA.
We’re shutting it down for now and totaling the fish count from midnight until now at 2 Fish + 15 DOAs, with a margin of error of +2 potential fish. We’ll update again tomorrow, and until then sending Wishes for Fishes and Fat Bear Dreams! ♥
Bonus Content
Remember way back to this morning when we said “But Otis doesn’t Sploot” (therefore, Splooting Otis should be coming to a theater near you soon! Bwahaha)“?!? Well, SuspectCelery has the closest thing to Splooting Otis I’ve ever seen, and as “Otis doesn’t Sploot” in my world, we need some help with Bear Definitions… Is it a Sploot if it’s in the water? Or are Sploots on dry land only? Because dang it if this doesn’t looking like Splooting Otis to us! What do you think — does it count as Sploot No. 1?
Bear cam images in this post are copyright National Park Service and/or Explore.org
Thank you for these reports and updates. I just love Otis so much and seeing him just makes my day!
You’re very welcome, Cindy! 🙂 Thank you for taking time to comment and say so!
Most definitely a sploot… a very nimble one at that!
We agree! 🙂
Nope, it actually is NOT a sploot. How dud I arrive at this answer? Why just yestereve, I watched Otis in the water performing a ‘semi-sploot’ maneuver. He picked a fish from the shallow riffles, spread his hind legs, knelt his forearms ever so slightly and ate his salmon. His belly never hit the soil beneath, nor did his legs rest on the ground beneath. What snd incredibly smart MASTER! That Bear KNOWS his current qualifications-age, trippy joints, ie: hips, knees, shoulders could give him the dickens getting back up from a solid sploot. Otis does NOT want to look weak in the eyes of the Queen of His Heart-Holly, nor younger usurpers. Instead, he found yet ANOTHER way to fish, and enjoy his spoils in a smarter way. Dang SMART BEAR
The “semi-sploot” is what we call his Downward Bear Yoga pose. 🙂 The GIF we posted here by SuspectCelery is a Sploot, to our eye (and that of chatters), but it’s okay to agree to disagree! 😀
We agree that he’s a darned smart bear — he knows where to fish and, most importantly, where to find the fish to get fat! 🙂
Who is Who Bear?
Also do you happen to know why there were two Wayne Brothers?
We do try to ID bears, when we know who they are, and in this case, we’re unsure, thus “Who Bear.” 🙂
There are two bears in the Wayne Brothers series. You can read about them in the Wiki:
https://katmai-bearcams.fandom.com/wiki/62_(aka_868_Wayne_Brother)
https://katmai-bearcams.fandom.com/wiki/83_Wayne_Brother
https://katmai-bearcams.fandom.com/wiki/868_Wayne_Brother