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  • Fisher Baiting

    Near the HPIC on Tuesday on the Van Hoevenberg trail we met a DEC employee who was carrying traps (live I assume) and beaver meat soaked in very odoriferous skunk extract. The skunk odor was to spark the fishers' curiosity and draw them to the baited traps. We didn't ask why but thought census. Perhaps someone here would have some insight into this.
    The best, the most successful adventurer, is the one having the most fun.

  • #2
    Originally posted by Neil View Post
    Near the HPIC on Tuesday on the Van Hoevenberg trail we met a DEC employee who was carrying traps (live I assume) and beaver meat soaked in very odoriferous skunk extract. The skunk odor was to spark the fishers' curiosity and draw them to the baited traps. We didn't ask why but thought census. Perhaps someone here would have some insight into this.
    Interesting...I was at the Loj this past weekend, and as I was driving out Sunday morning I saw a fisher run across the road right at South Meadows Rd...
    “Death is the only wise advisor that we have. Whenever you feel, as you always do, that everything is going wrong and you're about to be annihilated, turn to your death and ask if that is so. Your death will tell you, 'I haven't touched you yet.” Carlos Castenada

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    • #3
      Neil. while I'm not sure exactly what you saw, I do know the department is currently running studies on Fisher in the catskills and in western ny, but not in the high peaks area; maybe you saw a trapper going about his/her business?

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      • #4
        Originally posted by toothlessannie View Post
        Neil. while I'm not sure exactly what you saw, I do know the department is currently running studies on Fisher in the catskills and in western ny, but not in the high peaks area; maybe you saw a trapper going about his/her business?
        No, she was definitely a DEC employee. I spoke with her. The traps she was using were constructed from re-purposed emerald ash borer traps (don't ask me the details!).

        Although I could be wrong, I believe she said the skunk scent was an attractant, and separate from the beaver meat, which was the bait. I do not believe the meat was doused in the skunk scent.
        Scooting here and there
        Through the woods and up the peaks
        Random Scoots awaits (D.P.)


        "Pushing the limits of easy."™

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        • #5
          Originally posted by randomscooter View Post
          No, she was definitely a DEC employee. I spoke with her. The traps she was using were constructed from re-purposed emerald ash borer traps (don't ask me the details!).

          Although I could be wrong, I believe she said the skunk scent was an attractant, and separate from the beaver meat, which was the bait. I do not believe the meat was doused in the skunk scent.
          Yes, beaver meat is the bait and skunk is the long distance attractant. Usually the meat is placed in the back of the box or cage and the skunk lure is smeared on a stick or tree trunk near the set. A few years ago here in CNY (no open fisher season yet) DEC used wire cages with bait and recorded them on trail cams. A DEC biologist showed me the photos. They had quite a few of them recorded.

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          • #6
            There are far more fishers in our woods than we are aware of, being mainly nocturnal.
            They prey mainly on snowshoe rabbits and small animals.
            The pelt is valuable, giving lots of trappers needed income.
            A renewable resource.
            Jim

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            • #7
              In WNY, I've set successful photo "traps" for fisher, using raw meat. When I've seen fisher tracks, I attach my trail camera to a tree; to a different tree, I attach the meat in a mesh bag tied five or six feet off the ground. Usually the fisher eventually returns to the same area, scents the meat, and climbs the baited tree, giving me my photo.

              I've heard that fur trappers sometimes use a similar technique for fisher, except that they place the meat in a wooden box in a tree so that the fisher must pass over a trap to get at the meat.

              What the DEC folks were actually doing, I don't know, though.

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              • #8
                Here in the Tug Hill region, fisher are very common. I have seen them several times during the last couple of years. This winter I finally got a trail camera, which I set up on a hare, then a deer carcass. I ended up with a ton of footage of at least two separate fishers.
                Zachary Wakeman
                http://www.zacharywakemanphotography.com/
                http://nynaturephotozw.blogspot.com/

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