Hello September! For me and a lot of my outdoor brothers and sisters that means a transition from summer fishing to fall hunting. Not that I would ever tire of fishing, but I do look forward to the changeover. There is another outdoor activity on the horizon that I all but forgot about, that is until I received a Wisconsin DNR envelope within days of getting a great deer trail camera photo.  

A week ago I received the DNR letter and I guessed that it had something to do with white-tailed deer season, or deer tags, or something along those lines. For that reason I didn’t open it right away. A couple of days later I did and I was thrilled to find out that I had received a tag to trap fisher. It was also a surprise because I had been out of town when the application deadline came and went so I was pretty sure that I was going to be sitting out this trapping season. I realized that I had completed that application process last March when I renewed my Conservation Patron’s License.   

After opening the letter, I immediately thought of the trail camera photo that I had received just a couple of days earlier. I began searching and there it was, on Aug. 17, at 7:45 p.m. It was a photo of one of the biggest fishers that I have ever seen, in person or on camera.   

When I was a young pup I did my share of muskrat trapping and I enjoyed it. I can still remember the excitement and anticipation of checking a setup hoping that I had scored. To be fair, more often than not there wasn’t anything in my trap but that only made the successful setups much more satisfying and it didn’t deter me from trapping. I never did it for the money, even though more muskrats meant more duck hunting decoys and more shotgun shells. Now fisher trapping reminds me of both a good time and a good place. 

After receiving my first fisher tag a few years ago I began researching my adversary. The more I read up on fishers, the more impressed I became with them. From what I’ve read, the only thing that intimidates a fisher is a bigger fisher. They are territorial and nomadic, making them that much more difficult to pattern and outwit.  

Fisher season doesn’t start for a while and there are enough things coming up on my schedule in the short term to keep me occupied. That won’t stop me from getting excited about the challenge of taking on such an admirable and tenacious opponent. Only after punching my tag will I consider myself the fisher’s equal. 

Didn’t get enough Dave this week? Visit “Outdoor Trails and Tales with Dave Beck” on Facebook for photos and video of Dave’s adventures. You can share your own photos and video with him there as well, or by emailing him at dave@piercecountyjournal.news Also, check out OTT content on Instagram @thepiercecountyjournal