Not a duck!

Brian - That's neat to catch even at a distance. We now have them in N E MA and the sound they make at night will have you callin 911. Several years ago I had one waltz through my backyard very early one morning and I swear it's body and tail was over 3 feet - maybe way over. What I remember most was the size of the claws that were clear against the frozen snow - I am just starting to hear them scream at night the last week or two and guess it may be some kind of mating thing but sounds like a nightmare !
sarge
 
I treed a male fisher while pheasant hunting a few years ago. I think we surprised him or the dog did. He shimmied up a tree and held there for a few minutes and then started to come back down, with the dog right at the very bottom of the tree. He had no fear. I found a dead one two winters ago about 20 feet from my front door. It was hit by a car and then wandered over and croaked. I kept it for a few days outside (frozen stiff) and was going to skin it out. The pelt was gorgeous - nice and clean. We can hear them do their mating screeches once in a while. That is eerie for sure.


Nate
 
this thread, and these pictures, have turned into one of the best threads on this site, for me, in a long time.....I suppose that its because that although I've never trapped, and likely never will, I did dream about it when I was a kid.....read everything I could find in the library, (granted not alot), and even had a subscription to Fur Fish and Game for a time because that was the only place any current information was available.....

Eventually I stumbled on TRAPLINES NORTH-Stephen Meader, and that became my "favorite" book.....At the time Fishers were the pinnacle of fur and each one caught in the book received special mention.....not many of them in Florida as you might imagine so it became one of those animals that I said to myself that I wanted to see.....

Haven't as of yet but WHO KNEW that Fishers would be a reason to visit RI or Connecticut, (Brian figure out how to see them regularly and I'll book an "Blast and Photograph" trip with you this year between Christmas and New Years).

Looks like Washington is in the process of re-introducing them to the State having released 90 that were caught in B.C. on the Olympic Pennisula and they have confirmed breeding success so you best hurry with that project Brian .....

Thanks to the guys that have posted pictures and related stories......neat stuff.....

Steve
 
If you keep chickens or any type of poultry near where I live in Gloucester (just on the outskirts of Dogtown), it is only a matter of time before you will have fisher cats in the coop. A friend of mine lives up in Dogtown and he had some guinea fowl on his place to keep the ticks down. They were wiped out in a matter of a week by either a fisher or the yotes.

My dad was sitting on his back porch one morning a few years ago, smoking a cigar and drinking a cup of coffee when down the path comes this slinky, low-to-the-ground dark critter that he couldn't quite make out. It walked over to the neigbor's old potting shed, climbed up the steps, got up on its hind legs, and peered into the glass window of the door (basically at door knob height). It then dawned on my dad that it was a fisher, on the hunt for red squirrels. The old shed was loaded with them, or had been up until that point. The fisher made a good dent in the local population. I think my dad saw it one other time during that spring/summer.



Nate
 
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Great shots. We had one that lived on our point in Harpswell Maine. You didn't see them often, they used to tear up everything, cats, chickens, mean little bastards. I believe the one we saw lived under an old house (camp) right at the waters edge. dc
 
Nice pictures. We've had fishers expanding their range around New York as well. I've been hearing a strange scream out behind the house at night. When I'm out there it makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. I just listened to a couple of you-tube videos. They had fisher and red fox screams. The fox sounded more hoarse then the fisher scream. It's hard to say what I've heard just from memory. I'll have to pay more attention the next time I hear it.
 
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Steve, if you go on Youtube and search fisher cat sounds there are a number of possibilities. You seem to need to put in cat.

I found this gem while I was looking around. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1ucgLQuYso

We often hear lynx calling at night when we are out at the moose camp. There is nothing like fishing after dusk and listening to them call under the northern lights. It will raise the hairs on the back of your neck. Every now and then we spot them when we are hunting.
 
Those are nice pics of a fisher.

There are a few pine martin north of my area in Idaho and I have trapped a few but never have had anything to do with a fisher. That critter looks like a big male mink on some serious steroids...

I worked in the mink industry part time during the kill season years ago and handling a large male mink is an exercise in wrestling solid muscle...hard on the hands. Imagine what that critter would be like...an impossible to handle bundle of spring steel
 
Steve,

Wisconsin reintroduced Fisher a number of years ago and the population exploded. Everyone who lived in Fisher country (northern Wisconsin) and trapped had stories to tell and many of them weren't complimentary of the Fisher. Personally, I have seen 3 that I can remember at the moment. Two while deer hunting from the same stand and successive days but different animals - one a male and one a female. The gender difference is very apparent as the males are larger and darker coloring than the females. The other was a younger female at a bear bait site about 7-8 years ago. I have a picture of that one someplace but it would only be luck if I could remember where I put it.

Neat animals to be sure.
 
Cool pics...they are a neat critter.

Steve...Pennsylvania also reintroduced the fisher about 10 years ago or so. The population exploded from there and it looks like we are going to have our first trapping season on them next year. It is only slated to be a 6 day season, but I'll take that. I know a lot of guys that have caught them in their traps in the past and have had to release them. A very daunting task as you can imagine.
 
I know that the introduction on the pennisula has been successful to date...hopefully that wil be enough incentive to re-introduce them in the areas on the Eastern sid eof the state where they used to occur.....

Thanks for posting the information and the pictures...

Steve
 
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