Otter (fishing device)

It is steered by pulling on the line then letting stack so the slide mechanism on the board operates to switch direction.

The design takes advantage of the shearing effect achieved when the board is positioned at an oblique angle to the current.

To enable it to float in an upright position, it was equipped with metal weights made of lead or iron.

[3] In Britain, fishing with an otter was forbidden by the Salmon Fishery Act 1861; this may have been one of the reasons why British anglers introduced it to Norway.

The first ban on the device in Norway was imposed in 1870 and it was increasingly forbidden throughout the end of the century.