Otis Fishing Report for September 9, 2023: At midnight Katmai time, Otis was still holding out hope for fish inspections in his office. Just after 3:00 a.m., he says “aw, shucks,” and walks off cam with Salmon Nirvana still out of reach. We watch on Brooks Falls Low, in case he heads off cams on the Platform side for naps, and no luck. We flip over to Riffles to a minute or so before he walks off, and — oooohhemgeee SQUEALS — this is the content we’re here for! Iconic Classic Otis in his Office surrounded by a soft glow.
On Riffles, we can see Otis walks toward the Far Bank — possibly Alice’s or up the Far Path or other destinations that way, but we can’t see exactly where he heads. Riffles cam meanders a bit — zooming a lil in, a lil out — and just before 6:00 a.m. we can tell there’s a bear near the Office. Apparently, CamOp can too — because we get a zoom in! From the very awkward angle this bear shows us in the dark and grainy night, meh… could be or could be not our boy (though in daylight, we would absolutely know whether those are Otis’ Boy Bits dangling about, such is the view we’ve got! hahaha).
Mystery Bear turns and — voila! — we’ve got a Magic No. 7 identifier! ID acquired!
Moments later, a repeat of the first image above — Otis in his Office under the soft glowing infrareds. He hangs a while, but the fish are not yet ready for inspection, and eventually, Otis meanders across the River as the sky brightens and the cams bring us back from Oz to the land of color.
We pick Otis up on Brooks Falls cam as he meanders along the near bank.
A few steps later, he pauses, as if weighing his options, and turns back the other way. As the sun rises over Katmai, he walks toward Kat’s and River Watch. Interestingly, this snap is nearly identical to his August 22 departure!
A short while later, we pick up Otis on River and watch him grab a huge DOA!
SuspectCelery captured this GIF of Otis enjoying that feast-y DOA.
Otis continues to Meander Fish, and as he glides along, we’re treated to this gorgeous view!
In his escapades, Otis is captured in this GIF on River Watch by Gwynne hunting down the elusive Salmon Sushi Dinner his Big Bear Belly desires.
Otis weaves in and out of the tall grasses, and CamOps carefully follow him until he weaves into places unseeable.
Just before 10:00 a.m. Katmai time, Otis is spotted incoming on Riffles cam.
Tensions are high (though only in chat) because 856 is reportedly in Otis’ Office. Queue suspenseful music. But in a scene created by the Great Bear Conductor of Brooks Falls, 856 exits as Otis enters. Otis waltzes right in none the wiser of 856’s presence. And all is right in the World. ♥
There aren’t any fish to speak of, but things are going along fine. And then Who Bear shows up. Chat may have said… 6… 0… 2? Maybe. The closest I could come to an ID is “Walker vibes, but not Walker” with my mad ID Skillz. In any event, Who Bear enters the chat.
And does this in front of Otis. Surprisingly, Otis doesn’t yell “Get off my lawn!” and is unbothered by Who Bear. There’s a tiny grumble amongst the two and then Who Bear walks off, and all is quiet again. (Supporting the “Not Walker” ID, we might add!)
Otis carries on, and CamOps give us this magnificent shot of our boy. ♥
Except for Splashy Who Bear, all things are uneventful — the way Otis likes them (excepting the lack of fish thing) — and 435 Holly swings in for a visit. Who’d have thought that the vision of a bear’s rump could cause such a commotion? Chat is clearly enamored of that thong-clad rump, and everybody oohs and ahs over seeing Otis and Holly together. 🙂
Shortly after, Otis leaves his Office. As he meanders, so does he fish. 😉 And this is how he seemingly stumbles upon a meal.
He curves around and walks by the Sandbar. He checks behind rocks and trees for a bite of this or that. He crosses to the near path, as he did earlier. Eventually, he heads down River. And we catch him on River Watch with another DOA. He repeats weaving around the tall grasses, and we lose sight of him again.
And it’s 6:00 p.m. our time, and we’ve accomplished… let’s see… nothing today! 😀 So we are posting the World’s Longest Fishing Report for Otis’ first full day back from vaca. We’ll catch up tomorrow for sightings through midnight. Total fish count to 2:00 p.m. Katmai time is 4 DOAs. But remember that we have a new counting situ here in that Otis will be harder to spy eating when there’s the entire Lower River to cover. He would not be wandering aimlessly down there, if he were not eating! So multiply our count by, oh, I don’t know… 33… and that’s probably what he’s eaten today. 😉
Until tomorrow, sending wishes for fishes and fat bear dreams for the Overnights! ♥
Bear cam images in this post are copyright National Park Service and/or Explore.org
“Who Bear” will go down as one of the great sobriquets.
We love “Who Bear” for so many bears we can’t ID! LoL