The Leaning Pole Set
Submitted Photo
The area where trappers can trap and keep fishers was expanded in 2016 and remains the same this year. Locally, Wildlife Management Units 7M, 7P, and 7R are all included in the Expansion Area. However, to keep fishers during the 6-day season of the Expanded Area trappers must file for special permit from their local NYSDEC Regional Office, for Region 7 that would be the office in Cortland. Successful trappers must a have the pelt or unskinned carcass sealed by a DEC representative. Go to the DEC website or reference the Regulations Guide for the correct process to get pelts sealed.
Fisher trapping can be an easy activity if you do your homework ahead of time. Their diet is broad. They eat some plant based foods such as beechnuts, acorns, and apples but are known for their red squirrel and porcupine predation.
They also eat carrion of large animals like a gut pile of a deer. It is safe to say that fishers are generalists that will eat on what is available. Due to the ability of scent to travel, raw meat is a popular bait for fishers.
The running pole set is a simple set. It uses a piece of meat wired to a tree with a 160 or 220-size conibear between the ground and the meat. When a fisher attempts to climb the tree to get to the meat, they try to go through the trap, causing it to go off. While that sounds overly simple, there are nuances to getting the set just right. The tree or log should be relatively small, about the size of your upper arm. If the log is too big, the fisher can climb up the opposite side to get to the bait without setting the trap off. You want it to be at least ten feet long. If you are trapping on state land, you cannot deface living trees or vegetation so look for something that is dead that has fallen to the forest floor. The ideal angle for the leaning pole is about 45 degrees. The slope of the pole forces the fisher to approach the bait on the top side of the pole. You trap must be placed at least four feet off the ground according to the regulations and you must make it so a trapped animal is not fully suspended in the air when caught. I use a 6-foot piece of cable that I loop around the pole and attach to the trap so there is enough extra so when an animal is caught, it will fall all the way to the ground.
To keep the trap stable on the pole, you can purchase brackets that are made to be nailed in (again only to dead trees/tree parts on state land) to the pole then the jaws of the set trap “lock” in under two tabs on the bracket. Take a couple sticks or branches with leaves on them (on private land) and set them in the spring eyes to create a tunnel effect so the fisher is less likely to attempt to jump over the trap instead of going through it. Lastly, cover the bait with leaves and twigs so it is not visible from above. This keeps birds from coming in and eating the bait or possibly getting caught. It is also required if you are setting a foothold trap nearby (which you should). You should also put a “call” lure on the pole. This typically is extremely pungent with skunk essence.
The elevated bait and lure allows the scent to cover a larger area than bait on the ground so you are likely to have other furbearers approach the area around the leaning pole. However, some of those animals cannot climb such as coyotes or red foxes. By having a dirthole or flat set nearby, preferably slightly downwind of the leaning pole, you can still catch these animals when they come in to see what is going on. The first year I trapped for fishers when I was at SUNY Cobleskill, I caught one fisher, one raccoon, and two coyotes all in the dirthole set just feet away from the running pole set. I also caught one fisher in a leaning pole set that year. The following year I caught 4 fishers in leaning pole sets.
Just like in real estate, the key to trapping success is location, location, location. Fishers are predatory and hunt along their territory. Good places to set traps include stone walls, the transition line from hardwood to softwood forests, and old logging roads. Think of what is a good spot to try to catch a red squirrel. My best trapping location was an old logging road that ran had a stone wall intersecting with it.
Fisher trapping can be an easy activity if you do your homework ahead of time. Their diet is broad. They eat some plant based foods such as beechnuts, acorns, and apples but are known for their red squirrel and porcupine predation.
They also eat carrion of large animals like a gut pile of a deer. It is safe to say that fishers are generalists that will eat on what is available. Due to the ability of scent to travel, raw meat is a popular bait for fishers.
The running pole set is a simple set. It uses a piece of meat wired to a tree with a 160 or 220-size conibear between the ground and the meat. When a fisher attempts to climb the tree to get to the meat, they try to go through the trap, causing it to go off. While that sounds overly simple, there are nuances to getting the set just right. The tree or log should be relatively small, about the size of your upper arm. If the log is too big, the fisher can climb up the opposite side to get to the bait without setting the trap off. You want it to be at least ten feet long. If you are trapping on state land, you cannot deface living trees or vegetation so look for something that is dead that has fallen to the forest floor. The ideal angle for the leaning pole is about 45 degrees. The slope of the pole forces the fisher to approach the bait on the top side of the pole. You trap must be placed at least four feet off the ground according to the regulations and you must make it so a trapped animal is not fully suspended in the air when caught. I use a 6-foot piece of cable that I loop around the pole and attach to the trap so there is enough extra so when an animal is caught, it will fall all the way to the ground.
To keep the trap stable on the pole, you can purchase brackets that are made to be nailed in (again only to dead trees/tree parts on state land) to the pole then the jaws of the set trap “lock” in under two tabs on the bracket. Take a couple sticks or branches with leaves on them (on private land) and set them in the spring eyes to create a tunnel effect so the fisher is less likely to attempt to jump over the trap instead of going through it. Lastly, cover the bait with leaves and twigs so it is not visible from above. This keeps birds from coming in and eating the bait or possibly getting caught. It is also required if you are setting a foothold trap nearby (which you should). You should also put a “call” lure on the pole. This typically is extremely pungent with skunk essence.
The elevated bait and lure allows the scent to cover a larger area than bait on the ground so you are likely to have other furbearers approach the area around the leaning pole. However, some of those animals cannot climb such as coyotes or red foxes. By having a dirthole or flat set nearby, preferably slightly downwind of the leaning pole, you can still catch these animals when they come in to see what is going on. The first year I trapped for fishers when I was at SUNY Cobleskill, I caught one fisher, one raccoon, and two coyotes all in the dirthole set just feet away from the running pole set. I also caught one fisher in a leaning pole set that year. The following year I caught 4 fishers in leaning pole sets.
Just like in real estate, the key to trapping success is location, location, location. Fishers are predatory and hunt along their territory. Good places to set traps include stone walls, the transition line from hardwood to softwood forests, and old logging roads. Think of what is a good spot to try to catch a red squirrel. My best trapping location was an old logging road that ran had a stone wall intersecting with it.
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