| We hope you enjoy your visit. You're currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. If you join our community, you'll be able to access member-only sections, and use many member-only features such as customizing your profile, sending personal messages, and voting in polls. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free. Join our community! If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features: |
| I saw my first wild fisher today; It took my full 80 years to see it | |
|---|---|
| Tweet Topic Started: Mar 25 2016, 07:53 AM (141 Views) | |
| Banandangees | Mar 25 2016, 07:53 AM Post #1 |
|
Fire & Ice Senior Diplomat
![]() ![]() ![]()
|
I didn't know what it was at first and had to look it up via the PA Game News. But it looked just like this one. I was unloading my trailer/wagon of tree cuttings behind the wood shed when my dog took off around the front porch of the barn. Of course she made such a fuss that she got other dogs in the neighborhood barking. I didn't think much of it until I came over to where she was to see what the fuss was all about. She was looking up into one of the maple trees in front of the porch, where this critter was. It was up about 30 feet resting in the Y of one of the branches. At first I thought it was our barn cat, as she dark in color. So I called the dog away to stop the barking, thinking that it was our barn cat. Later my wife and I was sitting on the porch, enjoying our first 70+ spring day when the dog ran to the tree barking and looking up. This was several hours after initial incident and I just figured the cat came down from the tree and so I never bothered to look back up. My wife said what's that up in the tree. I said the cat. So I went to the tree to try to coax the cat down and finally got a good look at it and realized that our cat was only half that size and with a tail not nearly that long and bushy. It looked like a giant mink. Minks I've seen before. This was no mink. It looked exactly like what you see in the linked picture. Fishers have been considered extinct in Pennsylvania for years. Apparently, according to the linked article, they have been reintroduced and are making a comeback. Clear cutting and trapping back during the late 1800s and early 1900s cut seriously into their numbers here. It was exciting to see. The critter is still up in the tree as I write this. I'm sure it will be gone come morning. I locked our barn cat in the offset of the barn so she doesn't become the fisher's next meal. |
![]() |
|
| Thumper | Mar 25 2016, 08:08 AM Post #2 |
|
Fire & Ice Senior Diplomat
![]() ![]() ![]()
|
I have trapped many Muskrats and Mink. Never ran across a Fisher. I got 3-5 bucks for the muskrats and 25 bucks for the mink. Barely kept up with the cost of replacing the traps that some galoot kept stealing. |
![]() |
|
| Banandangees | Mar 25 2016, 08:51 AM Post #3 |
|
Fire & Ice Senior Diplomat
![]() ![]() ![]()
|
Sounds as though you did your trapping back in the early 50s. That was the going rate for a muskrat and mink pelt back then. You'd have to get $35 per muskrat and $223 for a mink pelt today to get the same value. No one is going to pay even close to that price for a mink or muskrat today. From what I read, a muskrat will only bring you $5 today and a mink pelt $13. Folks don't trap like they did back then. What's the point? They sure don't do it for the money.
Edited by Banandangees, Mar 25 2016, 08:52 AM.
|
![]() |
|
| Thumper | Mar 25 2016, 09:15 AM Post #4 |
|
Fire & Ice Senior Diplomat
![]() ![]() ![]()
|
Yep, it was the 1951 time frame. |
![]() |
|
| Neutral | Mar 25 2016, 09:44 AM Post #5 |
|
Fire & Ice Senior Diplomat
![]() ![]() ![]()
|
Never even heard of them. Cool. |
![]() |
|
| ImaHeadaU | Mar 25 2016, 11:23 AM Post #6 |
![]()
Fire & Ice Senior Diplomat
![]() ![]() ![]()
|
My brother used to trap muskrats back in the '50s in the part of New York city that I'm from. Never seemed worth the effort to me. |
![]() |
|
| 1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous) | |
| « Previous Topic · Fire And Ice General Discussion · Next Topic » |





![]](http://z3.ifrm.com/static/1/pip_r.png)



They sure don't do it for the money.

12:42 AM Jul 14
