Hey everyone, I'm an ohioan that wants to head to PA for a week this winter to try for fisher and bobcat. I'm looking at the unit map, and I see where you can trap both is pretty spread out. Are all of the units good? Good amount of public land where I won't get folks dogs? Would anyone be kind enough to point me towards my best bet? I don't need your spot just a unit would be helpful. I'd just like to catch one of each in my life. Thank you and God bless.

I know for a fact they are in Fayette county. 2C is legal. Look into Forbes state forest. Consider using grapples as the mountain soil is really spongy and doesn’t like to stake well. It was tough for me to bed my traps cause it’s spongy. Foothold only on land in PA also. I wish you the best.

northcentral PA.

lots of cats, lots of fisher, lots of public ground.

I was looking to north central/northeast. Thank you.

I'll check it out and I'll definitely look into using drags/grapples. Thank you.

Will I be decently safe to not run into folks dogs? That's a big issue here in ohio. Nobody I know traps coyotes on public for that exact reason.

Dogs are more of an issue in the fall when the bird hunters are out more.
Anything is possible, as some people hunt coyotes with dogs, but I haven't found it to be an issue in the late season.

Recommend 3A. Find good rock outcroppings for cats and hemlocks for fisher. Dogs shouldn't be a problem if you stay away from trails and roads. My areas in south eastern 1B is good for fisher but few to no cats.

Some game lands in north central are stocked with pheasants throughout the regular and late (after Christmas) seasons. Those game lands get a lot of pressure from hunters with dogs.You can look up pheasant stocking locations on the PGC site to know which ones to avoid.

I would think state forests would see a lot less dog activity.

I agree with Lugnut, game lands will have late season small game hunting.

Can you PA folks...use a 160 on a leaning pole ...set 5 feet off the ground ???

Not unless it's in a waterway.

Have them here but not in the zone.
Trophy nontargets.
They like rabbits, and nesting birds.
And kitties.

I'm horribly confused by your laws about conibears! I can use a 160 if it's in a cubby correct? That's the only set I've seen for fishers is a conibear up in the tree. So for example I can make a 7x7 box and use a 160 in it correct?

If anybody wants to really dumb it down for me here or in a pm I would appreciate it, I'm a 3rd year trapper that's never been out of my state where our laws are super simple and straightforward. I just wanna get a mink and a cat haha
Edit: what I meant was I can have one secured in a tree? The rules about it not being able to move is what gets me how do I secure a box to a tree in a way that it's literally impossible to move without putting nails in the tree? No matter how tight I wire it, it can still technically rotate around the branch.

I appreciate that, I'll lean towards the state forests.

Not sure where you are located in Ohio, but you may want to look at WV instead. Lots of fisher and bobcat in my area Tucker County.
Tons of National Forest.
I’m giving a fisher demo at the WVTA convention next Friday 9/20 at noon.

I can simplify.
Leave BGs at home.
Catch critters in paw hold traps.

Conibears and artificial cubbies with conibears can only be used within a watercourse, waterway, marsh, pond or dam.

A leaning pole using a foothold trap is legal, providing that the bait is not visible from the air and the animal will not be suspended.

Natural or artificial cubbies with footholds or just a simple dirthole set is what most of us use here for fisher.

Thay does simplify it. Rule 1 was it has to be in water, but the rest of the rules made it sound like they could be on land if done right. I've never heard of catching fishers in leg hold