Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Are fishers legal to hunt in pa

Can you hunt fishers in pa is it legal to kill theme if so how do.you go about and find them

You can trap them if you get the appropriate licenses but you cannot hunt them the way you can with bobcat.

Why would you want to shoot big, mostly nocturnal, weasels?

They kill every thing that they cross paths with.

As my guide friend from Maine says, fishers wake up PO'd and get more PO'd as the day goes on. Some say a big one (I guess they can hit 30-40 pounds) will even kill a deer, but not sure about that.

Every one I've seen has been in the middle of the day

1. Google "PA Hunting Abstracts"
2. Open PDF file
3. Read

What, no school today, or did you miss the bus again?

Never seen one over 15 pounds. Not nocturnal. Mean as chit.

I don't have a problem with that.

They've never been very numerous and have a minimal effect on game populations. I'd much prefer to have these interesting predators out there doing their thing than not. Free-roaming dogs, feral cats, and wild hogs are real threats to other, native, wildlife of all kinds and should be aggressively controlled.

It's been a few years since I hunted PA, but previously, the taking of any furbearer, including foxes, required a fur takers license, separate and distinct from a hunting license. As best as I can remember, only foxes and bobcats could be taken by gun or bow.

Other than coyotes, 'cats, pdogs, and gsquirrels, I don't generally shoot anything that I'm not planning to eat or give away for someone to eat.

When I was growing up in northern New England, I never saw a fisher in the woods during full daylight. When I saw them, it was at dusk, dawn, and night, and mostly when there was snow on the ground to contrast against their dark fur coat.

The king of the local poachers claimed that the deer population was severely depleted by fishers killing fawns, but it was just a smoke screen to cover his illegal acts.

I have never even seen one my buddy's have caught many and have pics of them but was just curious

I helped a buddy let one out of a leg hold trap years ago, before they were legal. We used a log to pin it down for the release. Yes it was upset, but ran off after being released.

About 12 years ago I was out deer hunting in the North country. I was in a ridge, no snow, leaves like conflakes. I spotted a Fisher moving through the woods 100 yards or so out. While watching the fisher I heard some crunching over the nearby hill.

I wait a bit, here comes a nice 8 pointer. His rack is on the wall now. I credit the fisher with keeping me put for a bit until the deer came by, noisy as it was moving and all.

I've never seen one over 18 pounds. Your guide friend must have been talking about a Wolverine. They used to be found in some parts of Maine and Quebec. Now, they're mostly endangered and found in northern Quebec on the east coast.

Joh_Gregori: According to my edition of Mammals of America published in 1917 by the Free University Society shows the Martes Pennanti Erxleben (the Pennants Marten or Fisher) males weighing between 8 1/2 pounds and 18 pounds with males measuring 36" long including a 14" tail.
Quote from the "habits" section of this book: "it is chiefly nocturnal and aboreal" - I think that means it mostly is active at night and in forests.
I have seen several of these during the early morning hours mostly when Hunting Elk in the "dog hair" thickets.
My wife and I did find a dead "Fisher" near Quake Lake in SW Montana a few years ago, he was near a highway and appeared to have been bonked in the head perhaps by a car.
Up until a year ago it was legal to Hunt Wolverine in Montana with a Trappers License - but not the Fisher.
A green assed idiot induced court injunction has Wolverine Hunting on hold here in Montana so I have not been able to Hunt them of recent.
I just can NOT imagine a 40 pound Fisher - I also think someone is confusing the Fisher with the Wolverine.
Wolverines do get up to 30 pounds that I am aware of - maybe larger.
This additional - I looked up Wolverines and they have been weighed up to 65 pounds.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Fishers are tough little critters, but wolverines are off the badass scale.

Saw a show years ago about a guy that raised some from cubs. They were very playful and seemed pretty smart, but danged if I'd be able to sleep with a couple of them running around loose.

I shot a doe early muzzleloader this year as it and two other does were being harassed by a lone fisher. Watched them bluff charge each other for a couple minutes then finally gave into the temptation. That fisher was real interested in those girls.

No schit, huh? Wow, that's an impressive amount of "thinking" right there.



More wolverine guessing on your part? Typical. That thread of yours was simply classic - especially when you had your ass handed to you several times over.

The thread, for reference: link