How long do you normally see fisher coming back through an area you are trapping? Trying to decide on whether to pull all my sets until after the gun deer season or just let them sit. I am trapping a secluded piece of public land that not many people can get to without using the private surrounding it.
Thanks in advance

I have seen some do loops in areas I do coyote work by tracks in the snow.8-11 day pattern according to my records. That is assuming the tracks are from the same animals. One ran some very hilly country and down thru the bottoms following a creek bottom. I could have caught the one in a double door cage trap. It ran under a blow down log across a small stream and a standing tree. I saw it come thru like this for a few years in the exact same place.

These loops can vary greatly depending upon population. We are getting a pretty good population in our low land areas the last few years. NO season in our zone yet locally but I believe we have a trapping population from my observations.

In my area, fisher habitat generally consists of heavily treed mixed coniferous forest areas, with some aspen or cottonwood interspersed or stands associated nearby for female nesting sites, and with lots of dead fall (heavy woody debris) along or near riparian areas. They prefer to travel and hunt under a well closed forest canopy. They are not well adapted for travel in deep, soft snow conditions; thus, they are seldom found in high deep powdery snow mountainous areas.

There are no specific criteria for set location other than locating their travel routes. Fisher consistently travel, and hunt, a certain circuit. Once you have found a good location it will usually produce year after year if you have a stable population. It does not matter what type set you put in, if it is baited and/or lured they will find it.

If the tracks are from a dispersing juvenile in the fall early winter,the next set of tracks you see could be sooner,later or not at all depending on reproductive sucess in any given year.
If it is a resident it could remain in a good prey pocket for several days before moving on to another prey pocket elsewhere within its range.
Google earth is your friend in determining travel routes and core fisher habitat which varies in different areas.
Resident fisher home range varies a lot in size also depending on habitat and correllated prey base.
The best way to figure it out is to get to know your entire trapground inside and out.This could take several seasons depending on the size of the trapgrounds.

What areas are you mostly singling out? The area I am trapping is on the edge of a lower marshy area with hardwoods and cedars mixed in with a lot of blowdowns. Today when checkinf my sets I found a set of tracks going along a blowdown but it was hard to tell if they were 100% fisher due to it snowing this morning so tracks were not very detailed. My plan right now is to try and leave my sets for 2 weeks straight in this area and if no luck, move onto the next area for a few weeks and so on. Thanks

That is a very reasonable plan in my opinion. Then when you connect use that site/location over and over again.

These loops can vary greatly depending upon population. We are getting a pretty good population in our low land areas the last few years. [/quote]


X2
In NW PA

I keep having one of my traps fired almost every day that i check. Bait is still there. Would squirrels or rabbits mess with cubby sets?

Lot of possible variables there.
On foot traps ya might need to bed traps better ?
On conibears try putting trigger in different position ?

Longtime residents of this site were fond of the "Blue Bucket " set back then.

Set up a camera. That'll answer your question.