Well, I figured out who has been stealing all my minnows from my floating bait pail overnight.
I heard splashing late last night where the pail is in the water so I quick went out with my flashlight and lit the bugger up.
It was a damn otter! He was floating on his back with my bait pail on his belly and was reaching in and taking big handfuls of minnows and eating them like it was a bucket of Popcorn!
He wasn’t bothered by me in the least shining the light on him and knew he could escape faster than I could ever get to him. I grabbed the line for the pail and tried to take it, but he held on to it for another 30 seconds until he was done eating them all...then he let it go and swam off.
Looks like the minnows are staying in the insulated bucket with the air bubbler on the screened-in porch overnight now.