November 2, 2023
Otis Fishing Report

Otis Fishing Report for November 2, 2023: You may (or may not) recall that it was 5:55 in the EDT on July 26 that we looked at our phone and wondered whether that was Live or Memorex Otis on Brooks Falls cam. And so it was 5:55 in the EDT on November 2 that we sat down to do some day-end work, but first looked at cams to see what we had missed in the last hour or so. And figuring that there’s no news because it’s been since October 15, and we’ve envisioned Otis sitting in an off-season office along the River somewhere. Perhaps he’s checking the refisherator for some snacks near the Fish Cache…

But there was Otis. Running. Not just “running” like a lil “Get Off My Lawn!” trot or an attempt to escape 634 Popeye the Pirate Man, but Olympian-level 50-yard dash kinda RUNNING!

What the heck? Do our eyes deceive? Is that a Doppelganger? 274 Overflow? 89 Backpack? This bear looks FAT. Which Otis is, but this bear is fatter than we last saw Otis. Okay, Dufus, that makes sense, since it’s been two weeks and one assumes he continues to consume, we said (to no one in particular).

But still… What. The. Heck?

Let’s rewind and review and scroll to the basement. The “basement” isn’t usually that deep with comments this time of year, but Otis just made an unusual appearance doing an unusual thing, and there are some 600 comments.

We scroll past the running, because we just saw that. What we need to know is what happened before Olympian Otis in his Bear Jordans hit the 50-yard dash. We check our tags and thank Cruiser and BearWatcher for cruising and watching. And tagging us! That seems to be the bottom we need to figure this out…

Otis arrives on scene at 1:31 p.m. Katmai time as captured in this GIF by Cruiser. There’s our boy meandering the path near Riffles without a care in the world (except FISH), as he is known to do. It would appear that he’s arrived from a napping spot behind the Near Platform or perhaps from an Up/Down Fish Ladder adventure — both known haunts. You’ll recall that this is the same path he took October 15, when he sniffed the sniff of perfume of his ex-Love 708 Amelia + 3. We immediately recall that she stood her fuzzy-eared ground while Otis did an about-face and took a detour around the family group (then moments later detoured around the 910 Girl Gang above the Cut Bank — fun times!).

We continue to watch Brooks Falls cam and are focused on who we’re told are 811s fishing near the Cut Bank. Mama’s attention is toward the Riffles area we can’t see — beyond Riffles in a cam blind spot. Suddenly, she high-tails it up the Cut Bank, Jr. in tow. They somewhat crash into each other at the top, and then run into the woods.

On re-rewind, we count that it’s about 8 seconds later and another bear appears from the area which had captured 811’s attention. (That bear may or may not have been 708.) This Who Bear also high-tails it up the Cut Bank.

An instant later, Otis appears, coming from the same direction, and follows suit up the Cut Bank.

We’re unsure whether Who Bear went into the woods or along the path, but we see for certain that Olympian Otis is taking the path. There doesn’t appear to be a bear in front of him. To our eye, he doesn’t appear to be chasing — he appears to be running. And, DANG, he’s going at quite the clip!

Here’s that “trot” in a GIF captured by Call_Me_Maeby. As Bommy points out, it seems like Otis has added both Rock Climbing and Sprinting to his resume this season! 😉

And that was all we saw of Otis, his Plump Rump, and those dangly Royal Family Jewels flapping in the wind (which, yes, ARE a valid form of ID).

So, we now know all the bigs and littles in the above scene are accounted for at this point, but the mystery remains — why was everyone running and why?

This is where we’re going to point out that if we see a herd of buffalo running or a group of people leaving an arena, it doesn’t mean the buffalo and people in the back are chasing the buffalo and people in the front — it simply means they’re all headed in the same direction to a similar destination. Or, in the case of running the same direction, possibly to a place deemed ‘safe’ from a [thing] we can’t see or know. And the last person (or bear, here) in the run isn’t by default the [thing] the bears in front are running from. 😉

All we know here is that 4 bears ran in the same direction. We may never know why.

And that Otis didn’t catch any fish or scraps or DOAs during this 24 minutes.

And my favorite takeaway: That Otis looks GREAT!

Not the views we asked for, but the views we got, and knowing Otis is still putting on the fat while the weather is seemingly mild can maybe give some a bit of peace of mind. The official count in the records for November 2 is 0 Fish + 1 Olympian Otis.

Until next time, sending Otis+++ Wishes for Fishes, the cams a Sunshiny Day, and you a Fabulous Friday! ♥

If you missed it, here’s the instant replay of all the action, compliments of Cruiser.

Bear cam images in this post are copyright National Park Service and/or Explore.org