Aside from just enjoying the park, a main goal of this trip involved our newly-adopted past time of fly-fishing. On Monday, we ate breakfast (side note -- one of the greatest advantages of fly fishing is not having to get up early!) and headed off to a nearby creek, Soda Butte, which feeds into the Lamar River.
The spot I fished that day wasn't too wide (all the better for my lack of casting skills!). But I stood there, semi-patiently casting away into a hole on the opposite bank where a few fish had been rising. All of a sudden, I saw a blur in the water. At first take, I believed it to be three of the biggest trout I'd ever seen in my life swimming in a school. I nearly jumped out of my skin with excitement! But it only took a second for me to realize the truth -- it was a family of river otters, mom and two young ones!
One of the youngsters swam through the hole into which I was casting, and came up with a trout in its mouth! For the better part of 20 minutes, I stood in awe as this family was no more than 10-15 yards away from me on the opposite bank.
Each of the two unsuccessful fisher-otters would approach the prize winner and try to get a nibble of the fish. Each time, the owner would pick it up and move a few feet. Back and forth they went. The two hungry but food less otters also would trail along licking the weeds and snurfing the bank looking for tidbits having gotten away from the third. They were so close to me that I could hear the bones cracking and crunching!
As usual, Glenn caught fish and I didn't, but the otter experience will not be repeated; there's always more fish!
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