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Post by voodoofire1 on Jul 25, 2014 22:24:37 GMT -5
Fellas, We've been seeing a Fisher, a dozen chickens and a couple of our cats have come up missing this summer, today as I was out sitting by the pond recuperating from yesterdays surgery when I heard a muffled chicken not too far away, grabbed up the .22 pellet gun and headed that direction.....so I get over there and our dog is standing in the yard and looking into the nettles that are along the creek, I head in, and get about 10 ft and it looks like a couple chickens are laying down, I get about 5' away and the Fisher lifts it's head my way,turns and melts into the nettles and weeds.......I am passed  ed at this critter, tried the live trap, tried scaring it away, even fired off a couple .44 rounds, just keeps coming back....down to 1 free chicken and the rest are in the coup, which is guarded by our mastiff, we have 2 of them....hell on people but absolutely worthless on critters and varmints.....What can we do?? |
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Post by Woody Williams on Jul 26, 2014 12:30:11 GMT -5
Some kind of a trap baited with a chicken?
Fishers are tough and smart little critters.
Good luck on it..
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Post by greyhair on Jul 26, 2014 19:45:38 GMT -5
Whereabouts do you live? I ask because a Fisher would be really rare this far south. They are a northern animal - they love snowshoe hares and are about the only thing that will kill porcupines. I had a mink a couple of years ago that made the rabbits in my thickets disappear. I heard that minks like to travel in ditches so I put a trail cam in the ditch and actually caught it running through the ditch with a dead bunny.
My wife saw it the kitchen window, called me at work and said "what looks a huge squirrel, but with fangs?"
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Post by featherduster on Jul 27, 2014 5:13:04 GMT -5
I have never seen a Fisher in Indiana.
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Post by ridgerunner on Jul 27, 2014 13:46:25 GMT -5
Doubt it was a fisher..Mink or weasel...kill the darn thing.
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Post by greyhair on Jul 27, 2014 14:44:28 GMT -5
Minks can range in to really dark phases. When I was reading up on them I believe I read that they will kill way more than they need to eat, apparently because they just like to kill things
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Post by greyhair on Jul 27, 2014 14:48:47 GMT -5
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Post by esshup on Jul 27, 2014 15:25:44 GMT -5
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Post by voodoofire1 on Jul 30, 2014 20:14:20 GMT -5
I've seen Mink and Weasels before, it was too big for either one of them, remember I was 5 feet away from it, and it was not the first time I've seen it, watched it for almost 5 minutes about a month ago in a field by my buddies house who lives a mile from here, we both live along the Salamonie river between Montpelier and Warren, also I looked at the link provided by esshup, it was definitely a Fisher Cat, looked exactly like the dark one in the pics, the size was right too......Haven't seen it since the chicken incident above, hope it stays away too...but this is not the first one I've seen around here either, the first one was in June of '06, it was 20' away and hopped up on a log and went across the creek in full view, I actually though that one was a Wolverine due to it's size,coloring, sounds it made, and the thing had claws.. big ones too... used them to grip the log as it crossed the creek......I'll set a trail cam along the creek as these critters have been traveling along it and try for a pic....I'll keep you posted.
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Post by freedomhunter on Jul 31, 2014 7:26:43 GMT -5
you are not in the general range that they occupy, but anything can happen I guess. It would have been dead if I was that close to it lol. I had a buddy with a chicken coop and minks would bite the heads of his chickens just for the fun of it, they just like to kill things.
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Post by voodoofire1 on Jul 31, 2014 8:03:09 GMT -5
I would have ended it's pilfering ways had I been just a bit quicker, coming back from being paralyzed, so I'm still a bit slow, and by the time I got to the real gun it was gone or hiding, just couldn't find it, so I hoped to scare it away with the 3 shots into the mud.......
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Post by budd on Aug 7, 2014 6:51:16 GMT -5
Actually I've always thought they were easy to trap, have trapped MANY of them. If there is no trapping pressure in your area you should be able to live trap it easily. By chance are there any mink farms with in 20 or so miles of you? I have seen ranch mink that are HUGE.
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Post by esshup on Aug 7, 2014 8:32:28 GMT -5
I want to see a picture of it when it's caught! I still think it's a mink.
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Post by voodoofire1 on Aug 7, 2014 22:49:19 GMT -5
Not caught.....it's dead... neighbor killed it and turned it in to the DNR...it WAS definitely a Fisher.
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Post by esshup on Aug 8, 2014 23:16:40 GMT -5
Not caught.....it's dead... neighbor killed it and turned it in to the DNR...it WAS definitely a Fisher. When did he turn it in? |
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Post by voodoofire1 on Aug 10, 2014 21:47:34 GMT -5
I don't know the exact day, didn't ask, I live in a rural area, he lives 2 1/2 miles from me, and there's only 6 houses between us, I had never met him before the other day, i happen to be over to my buddy's house who lives next door(1/2mi.) to him and he happen to drop by, the conversation was short, but when I asked what he did with it, he said and I quote "the DNR officer saw me shoot it and I gave it to him"...Now he could be lying or telling the truth, who knows but I don't have any reason not to believe him, he described it to a "T", I did ask about it's appearance and it matched exactly what I had seen with my own eyes, size,coloring, tail, enough info that I believed he did what he said......but if he didn't...I guess I'll know soon enough.......
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Post by Woody Williams on Aug 11, 2014 8:02:43 GMT -5
I don't know the exact day, didn't ask, I live in a rural area, he lives 2 1/2 miles from me, and there's only 6 houses between us, I had never met him before the other day, i happen to be over to my buddy's house who lives next door(1/2mi.) to him and he happen to drop by, the conversation was short, but when I asked what he did with it, he said and I quote "the DNR officer saw me shoot it and I gave it to him"...Now he could be lying or telling the truth, who knows but I don't have any reason not to believe him, he described it to a "T", I did ask about it's appearance and it matched exactly what I had seen with my own eyes, size,coloring, tail, enough info that I believed he did what he said......but if he didn't...I guess I'll know soon enough....... There could be more than one of those rascals around? |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 1, 2014 18:20:29 GMT -5
Most Biologist believe Fishers to be extinct from Indiana for many decades. If this was a Fisher it would be an amazing discovery. There are River Otters in Indiana and Mink.
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Post by ncmountainman on Sept 3, 2014 9:00:20 GMT -5
I saw a Pine Marten many years ago when I first started hunting in Indiana. Never saw one here in NC. It chased a squirrel up a tree. Blowed my mind.
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Post by moose1am on Sept 19, 2014 1:04:32 GMT -5
I saw a Pine Marten many years ago when I first started hunting in Indiana. Never saw one here in NC. It chased a squirrel up a tree. Blowed my mind. Send that fisher over to my house. I have some Fox Squirrels that I want to get out of my yard. I shot one in the head the other day when I caught him eating the sunflower seeds in my bird feeder on the back deck. I've been trying to either live trap or shoot that stupid squirrel and all his brothers and sister and cousins for the last few years. I went out the front door with my trusty Gamo Bone Collector .17 cal air rifle and peaked around the back corner of the house between the squirrel and the tree he normally runs to when I open the window at the back of the house to try to get a shot at him. When I start to open that back window he runs along the deck and climbs up into my Ash Tree at the side of the house. That would not be so bad but years ago I figured it was be cool to plant some ivy around the base of that tree and it grew up into the tree and got out of control. Now if the squirrels go into that tree they can hide in the ivy and I can't see them to shoot them out of the tree like I was able to in the past. So this time I got smart and got between the squirrel and the tree and he/she didn't know what to do and froze when he/she saw me with the gun. That was just enough time for me to aim and fire and I was on target finally. I knocked the squirrel right off the feeding platform and it died on the ground a few seconds later. That squirrel won't be stealing my bird food anymore!
But there are always more squirrels that move into the area and find the bird seed. I've live trapped five or six fox squirrels on my back deck in the last year or two. I relocated them away from the area but once in a while I get tired of waiting for them to go into the trap and just get the pellet gun out and do a little squirrel hunting. They do taste good if you fry them up.
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