trapping fisher in pa, with footholds

jrcampbell

New member
Got access to trap a few farms and recently my buddy's dad (one of the farmers) said he saw three fishers go onto the neighboring farm. I'm just getting into trapping, but i'd like to try for one of these. we can't use conibears outside of a watercourse here and was wondering if a simple dirthole would be effective? I saw a video where johnny thorpe ( I believe) was setting conibears at the entrances of holes in the bottoms of old stumps and trees, would this be more effective?
 
Last edited:
Most people I have helped set traps for fisher are using box traps. I don't know if legholds work well for fisher but I lend a hand to a couple guys and they all use box traps with skunk lure.
 
I would use a #2 at least, they can be a little handful in a foothold, use some cavens gusto for lure, there not hard to trap, either make a cubby on the ground and use two traps or get some 220 conis but natural cubbies seem to work the best, or build some wooden boxes that the 220s will fit in, kind of like the boxes guys buil for marten trapping, and then elevate it a couple feet.
 
we can't use conis outside of a watercourse, but i'll give the other ideas a try when they come in. unless they change it we got 5 days to get one.
 
Something I learned from a friend that is a nuisance trapper a watercourse is not just the water. It is the entire stream bed even if dry. If the stream is 3' wide but floods 20' wide this would be your watercourse. This should help you a lot. If buying traps , get 1 3/4 or larger with coyotes in your area. I've held them in 1 1/2 but would buy 1 3/4 if starting out.
 
I'm actually planning on getting some mb-550's and some bridger 1.65 mods. they should hold whatever gets into them. that does help with the watercourse definition, but there's no water where I would be comfortable setting traps at my buddies farm, too many jack russels running around.
Another question: would offset traps hold a fisher ok?
 
I'm no expert, but literally just read an article today abut this very thing in April FFG, and he used dirt hole sets with Footholds, strong long distance call lure with skunk base and meat in the dirt hole. He also said that the thicker brush the better for Fisher.
 
Back
Top