Otis Fishing Report for September 11, 2023: Otis left his Office about just before midnight last night, and try as we may, we couldn’t pinpoint his location (Brooks Falls cam zoomed wide and parked quite a while and River Watch was parked.)
That said, just after 4:00 a.m. Katmai time, Brooks zooms in and Otis is back in his Office. That leads us to believe he may have exited up the Far Path for a lil snoozles and returned the same way. You are, of course, welcome to use your imagination to come up with something more exciting (though if you were up all night watching bears, naps may sound pretty darned good right now!) 😉
An hour and a half into this session, Otis thinks Sit Fishing might be a better strategy and so he… sits. And fishes. And an hour into that, he… stands. And fishes. With this change, BREAKFISH is served! (And we’re back to monster fish!)
And then the great bear in the sky said “let there be light,” and Otis is in his Office in full color again! Brooks Falls cam is zooming along with bears fishing between Riffles and the Falls, and squinting at Brooks Low is just not cutting it. We take a baking break.
When we come back, ELM909910 has tagged us on a post by mammieyocum1 indicating Otis caught one “at approximately 7:47 Alaska time.” We look at our records, and we see one about an hour earlier. It’s not a reflection on YOU when we wonder whether someone is counting time zones incorrectly — it’s very much a reflection on ME. Who knew “time zone challenged” was even a thing until someone silly decided fish needed to be counted?!?
So we rewind and review on Brooks. Otis kinda looks like he’s in the aftermath of his “I just ate a yummy wiggly salmon” body language, but that’s insufficient. We try Brooks Low. Well, gosh, now if pixels (or bears) could TALK that would help. But they can’t. We hit up Riffles. It’s other-viewed at the moment where we rewind, and then scans to Otis’ Office. Otis’ is the size of the smallest raisin you can image. We go full screen. We zoom. We squint. We watch a 5-minute segment oh, I don’t know, maybe 12 times. We walk away. We bake some more.
Four hours later, we try again. And some flippin’ how we manage to get to the exact spot where Otis does THIS (look very carefully at his Office):
Then he turns parallel to his Office wall, and we call it! FISH! Whew. (We do try to ensure every fish making a sacrifice counts!)
At 9:00 a.m., Otis shift is over and he heads down Riffles toward the Lower River. He grabs a scrap along the way right about here.
Twenty minutes later, Otis arrives on scene and the salmon jump for joy (because that salmon lives another day outside of a bear’s belly)!
Then we’re treated to Shake It Like a Polaroid Otis, as he gets ready to dance with the salmon! We got the still shot…
And the ever-fabulous Top Bear of GIFs LunaCre stops everything to capture this GIF for your viewing pleasure! MANY thanks, Luna!
Otis takes a stroll toward Who Bears, and they generously leave him a LARGE scrap (judging by how long it took him to munch, and, yes, we considered how many teeth he has — it was long for HIM).
He meanders and grabs himself a DOA. And we’re treated to a few of the many faces of Otis: We get a little Snorkel Otis, Periscoping Otis. Meander Otis. Tall Grass Otis. Otie Gator. We even get the best Otis of all — Munchies Otis with a face full of salmon. Lastly, we get Off Cams Otis. (And the baking continues…)
An hour later, CamOps with good sniffers pick up his trail again and follow him through the grasses. Otis stumbles upon something we dare say is quite pleasing. He is really into this one! We want to call this one a “fish,” but the only visible wiggle is Otis’ adorable bum. 😉
Interestingly, another bear followed in Otis footsteps and paused at that same spot. Based on body language, that bear was eating scraps — Otis’ scraps. And Otis would only leave scraps if he were feeling satiated. 😉 So again let us be reminded to call on our Inner Zen and not worry too much about our “old” boy. 😉
We lose Otis in the tall grasses again and our imagination says he’s eating 632 more scraps, give or take a few. Or naps. Regardless, we’re thinking this is a good time to pause (because baking). Fish count midnight to 1:30 p.m. Katmai time is 2 Fish with wiggles + 2 Scraps + 6 DOAs on cam — and many more off cam, no doubt!
Until tomorrow (maybe a drive by later tonight), sending wishes for fishes and giggles for wiggles (because that’s cute and we thank you again, Bommy for letting us snag it!)! ♥
Bear cam images in this post are copyright National Park Service and/or Explore.org
Lol!! Otis’ fishing report is much appreciated!!
Thank you so much for saying so!