My First Fisher(s)

WOW! What an awesome day!  

After waiting since August to get my fisher traps out, I finally was able to put my sets in Zone F of Wisconsin last Saturday.  This is a woods that I bowhunted and ran snares for coyotes and fox all winter.  I had regular trail cameras and snare knock-downs from all the dang fishers in this woods.  I know for a fact that there were atleast 5 different fisher in this 125 acre area.  This last spring, I called in a nice male while turkey hunting.  

Zone F	Number of applicants - 2,502 State quota - 260 Permits issued - 1,505

This little female could have been one of the two I caught, but it's impossible to tell.

This big male is the one I was hoping I would get...

So, it's only logical that I would target one of these fishers to put my tag on.  I checked all 5 sets on Sunday morning, but nothing had moved through.  A major storm system was moving through and we were expected to get anything from 12-20 inches of snow in one day, critters were on the move.  My son and I headed out to check our sets on Monday morning through a blizzard and unplowed roads.  I live about an hour from my sets because when I applied for my fisher tag, I was living in one zone, and in the summer I moved into another zone, and the DNR did not allow me to switch zones.  So I was stuck commuting an hour one way to check my sets, making a filled tag even more important.  Luckily, I didn't have a make another trip.  

My son and I checked the first 2 cubby sets but nothing.  I thought I would try both cubby sets and running pole sets using 220 conibears.  In Wisconsin, regulations state that conibears need to be either enclosed from all but one point of entry to the conibear, or atleast 5 feet above ground with no sight exposed bait.

Upon coming up to the 3rd set, I saw this nice fisher hanging there in a perfect conibear kill; a clean blow to the back of the head, you can tell by the body position and lack of struggle that the fisher never knew what hit it and died instantly!  There's nothing more rewarding to an outdoorsman that a clean, quick kill.  

So after being just over the moon happy, I tell my son that we need to go get the other two sets because we are done. So we grab the 4th one and pack it up.  Then we come up to the 5th and final set and WHAT!? Another fisher! Same perfect conibear kill, same position, and almost identical size fisher!  

I was so thrilled! I had been worried that I wouldn't fill my one tag this year with the early blizzard, but I ended up getting two animals in one night!

I caught both of them on running pole sets.  Check your regs before making this same set.  I wired a 220 to a tree that has fallen and has one end on the ground, and the other end goes nowhere.  You then wire the bait or scent right up next to the trap on the backside.  In Wisconsin, no sight-exposed bait is permitted so then you take some pine boughs or birch bark to use as a covering so predatory birds cannot get to it, and so the fisher can only enter the conibear from one direction.

Please note that this picture was taken during the set making process.  After, I put skunk gland lure on pine boughs and stack them over the bait to hide from birds and non-target catches.

Now it's unfortunate yes, that I killed more than the one fisher needed to complete my tag, but an incidental catch, as it's called, is nothing but a waste, it is given to the conversation warden in full, and they use the carcass for research and the pelt for trapper education courses and teaching experiences.  
Visit the Wisconsin Trappers' Association website.

I ended the day with two female fishers, and ended up keeping the older, bigger one.