Otis Fishing Report UPDATE for September 18, 2023: Otis was (probably) snoozling up a storm up above the Falls when we left off reporting last night.
About 4 hours after leaving the Falls by way of the Fish Ladder — around 5:00 p.m. — Otis returns across the top of the Falls, and we recall this is the one place we don’t see him fishing — the Lip. If this were 128 Grazer, you know darned well she’d have bolted right there to the edge to catch that lone jumping fish! But not our boy — he’s just a tad bit too far back. 😉 He does pause an instant later, as though sniffing that flashy fishy fish, approaches the Lip for an instant, and then thinks I’d rather pace myself than spoot over the Falls (as many of us similar in age would).
Otis confidently returns the way he left — Down the Fish Ladder — as captured by Blair-55 in this Brooks Falls cam GIF. Some chatters noted they hadn’t seen this behavior by Otis before, and because some other chatters noted the same in 2022, we started tracking it. 🙂 In 2022, we saw Otis leave and return via the Fish Ladder 9 times. For 2023, this is trip up and down number 3.
He sniffs the air, assesses the Falls situation and walks toward the Near Bank. He heads up Riffles and Down River.
It’s more than an hour later when we pick up Otis dining on DOAs in the late day sun at the Lower River. He meanders about and enjoys the lovely evening of cool breezes, cold water, and not-so-fresh salmon, and he does so mostly off cams.
And a half hour after that snap, Otis is strolling down the Riffles again, like an easy breezy walk around the block.
Side Note: In photography, we refer to the time when the sun is at a certain angle at dusk and dawn as the Golden Hour. It takes what could be an ordinary photo and makes it magical! Whether shooting people or nature or model homes, photographers have been known to go out of their way to set up a perfect Golden Hour shot.
At Brooks Falls, every bear looks fabulous during the Golden Hour, but (and we *may* be a wee bit biased), we think this beautiful hunk of bear — Golden Otis — looks extraordinary. ♥
Otis hangs out there on the Sandbar and eats several scrappy pieces of DOA, including the Fan Favorite Hand Balancing Scraps.
After having his fill at the Salmon Scrap Bar, Otis wanders toward the Far Bank. He Meander Fishes with Alice (sort of) leading the way for a few minutes.
And then he turns on his heels and heads back toward the Riffles as though on a mission — ain’t much Meander in his steps. He is hugging the Far Bank, but Otis is With Purpose. And then we see the reason. It’s time for snoozles (and we know how Otis loves his snoozle time!), as he heads up the Far Bank via a hidden path nearer the Riffles than the Falls. His bulky self is mostly obscured by the foliage, but what we can see indicates Otis is as spry as a spring cub popping his head out of the den for the first time!
At this point, the clock has struck just 7:30 p.m. in Katmai, but as far as we can tell Otis hasn’t made another appearance on this calendar date — please correct us, if we got it wrong, but we’ve searched Overnights and chat, and we don’t see him. So we’re thinking he’s either got an Epic Nap vibe OR he snuck out in the middle of the night like an unruly teenager and is fishing off cams.
We’re totaling the fish count for September 18 at 1 Fish + 7 Scraps + 26 DOAs on cam.
We’ll be catchin’ up later while Otis is (hopefully) catchin’ fish, and until then, sending Wishes for Fishes and, again, Fat Bear Poster votes! ♥ You can vote for as many posters as you wish with one vote per poster on Explore’s voting page.
Bear cam images in this post are copyright National Park Service and/or Explore.org
