Fishers, sent here from the devil!

[eagle lake sugar]

I thought squirrels were bad, but I have a resident fisher in one area that chews everything that crosses his path. He's bitten holes in my mainline, chews tees, tubing, saddles, etc. I found a hollowed out tree, looked in there and there was a dead crow he'd been gnawing on. I swear he goes through life permanently ticked off and destroys anything in his path!

[maple flats]

Trapping season should be on.
I had one here last year but it moved on soon after. He never bothered the tubing and he cleaned out a family of squirrels I'd had problems with in one storage shed for a few years. Hopefully his scent is still in there, they have not returned yet (I think he ate them), nor their cousins.

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

That sucks. I heard of a guy near us that had fisher problems as well. Completely wrecked his mainline. They are nasty little buggers!

[maple flats]

Be careful too, they can be very dangerous. They are a smaller cousin of a Badger and often have that type of temperment.

[JoeJ]

I have been tormented by fishers for about 10 years at my sugar house woods and all 8 years at my remote woods. The first year at my sugar house woods, the devil chewed about 250 drops. It took me two years to trap it. Then another one moved in and I have not been able to get it yet.

In my remote woods, the first fisher chewed parts of 4 or 5 rolls on brand new tubing that we had stacked in a pile at the top of a mainline in the woods. It has gone downhill since then. Took me two seasons to get that one. The new one that moved in went through the whole 40 acre woods chewing drops mostly and a lot of laterals. It died in a trap this summer but not before wrecking a lot of drops and tubing. This fall I replaced 2-300 one year old drops. The past two days after turning on the vacuum, I have put in 40 or 50 couplings on laterals and I am still not finished.

A trapper friend in Ontario gave me the name of a lure that will call in any fisher within a half a mile. I am going to be prepared for the next one. Including the one at my sugar house woods.

Joe

[Trapper2]

2098220983
Didn't find one in my buckets yet. Probably busy with you tubing guys. LOL

[maple flats]

If you don't trap, try to find a trapper to catch it.

[eagle lake sugar]

I haven't trapped for years, but might need to take it back up. The state of Maine collared some lynx that they were tracking while monitoring their populations and when a collar stopped moving, they'd snowshoe in and find out why. Several of the lynx were killed by fishers, they'd sneak up on them usually in a snowstorm and go for the throat. So yeah, they're a nasty animal.

[Chickenman]

Looks like Maine's trapping season in Nov-Dec. If you do not trap and are in need of one, I can post on another forum for you and see if anyone is willing to help you out. One of the ADC guys maybe able to trap them out of season. I do not know the regs in your state.

[eagle lake sugar]

Looks like Maine's trapping season in Nov-Dec. If you do not trap and are in need of one, I can post on another forum for you and see if anyone is willing to help you out. One of the ADC guys maybe able to trap them out of season. I do not know the regs in your state.
Thanks, I'm going to keep an eye on him and if it continues, he'll "disappear."

[JoeJ]

I got my Fisher lure on Monday, set the traps on Tuesday and yesterday one dead devil cat.

Monday and Tuesday I went through the woods and fixed numerous fisher chews and deer chews to get the vacuum from 19" to 26". Thursday morning, the vacuum was 20". Just could get the time to find the problems on Thursday. First thing Friday morning I found my problem causer dead and started to repair it's 2 day rampage. The fisher had chewed 6 drops and a bunch of laterals. I had to repair 16 chews besides the 6 drops.
The vacuum went back up to 26".

The fisher lure was a good $24.00 investment.

Joe

[blissville maples]

Interesting. I have major problems with coyotes. An occasional porcupine, what does this damage look like? Bunches of small canine teeth holes, or all beavered up??

[JoeJ]

The fisher cat damage looks like a bite by a house cat. The holes are very small but at 26-27" those little holes leak and drop the overall vacuum level. Sometimes I will find only one hole, sometimes 4 holes, sometimes 6' of lateral full of holes and then when the fisher is really energetic, it will chew a drop completely.

Out of the 16 repairs on Friday, I found mostly of one or two hole bites, a couple 4 hole bites and a 6' section bit every few inches.

Joe

[Old County Road]

JoeJ - do you mind sharing the name and source of the fisher lure?

[eagle lake sugar]

My culprit is a big male fisher, he has chewed holes in my mainline before, but lately it's been tees. He chewed four tees in one group of trees and completely destroyed them.

[JoeJ]

I bought the lure from the "Snare Shop" in Iowa. (712-822-5780) It is called "Martin and Fisher" call lure from Carmen's Superior Animal Lures. Pretty awful smelling stuff. It was double plastic bag sealed with a heat sealed plastic wrap around the cap and it still smelled after I opened the first sealed plastic bag. Even worse if you get any on your hands. But in my opinion extremely effective. Fished in the trap within 3 days. The last fisher I caught in July took me about 3 weeks and 12 cans of sardines.

Joe

[OneLegJohn]

My son's middle name is Fisher. Yeah, he's a tough sucker.