@N Florida Mike, if the otters are around In your small lake, you should see some piles of poo with crawdad shells all in it on the banks. I would thin the small bass herd, that big skinny 21” you got the other day looked starved out. Too many mouths to feed.
the otters can clean out a pond like we discussed above (which I think you’ve experienced before), but in a small ecosystem like that they would show themselves occasionally. We see them frequently in the daytime on the small private trout stream that I guide on. They typically live in an undercut bank