Dave Beck

Happy New Year! Although it’s the start of a new year, it’s near the end of the fisher trapping season. Fisher trapping is a tough gig. The time and effort put into it does not equal the amount of rewards, which don’t happen often enough. It’s a biproduct of the animals being pretty crafty critters.

The brief history lesson on fishers is that they were trapped out in Wisconsin in the early 1900’s and reintroduced starting in 1956. Wisconsin actually shipped bobwhite quail to the state of New York in exchange for fishers. I’ve heard that the reason for bringing back fishers was to combat the porcupines in the northern part of our state. The porcupines were disseminating our northern forests and the fishers were one of the few predators that could defeat them. The fact that they are tenacious and keen enough to defeat a porcupine gives you an idea of how skilled they are as predators. They are also vicious enough to rule out everything else that poses a threat to them.

I think this is my fourth season trapping fishers and the more I do it, the more appreciation I have for those apex predators. Adult fishers are pretty much the top of the food chain in Wisconsin and you would have to get into lynx country to find a worthy adversary for them. Although I have harvested a couple of them, I hardly consider myself a worthy adversary. I’m more of an example of it’s better to be lucky than good.

I have several traps set and as required, I check them daily, even the traps that I have trail cameras on. Unlike some people who wake up in the morning and immediately check overnight financial movements or check out sports scores, I log into my camera account and pour through the photos that have accumulated throughout the night. That’s when I saw this…..

In the span of minutes I had 10 photos of a big fisher circling my trap and giving it a thorough inspection. Now fishers have a home range up to 20 miles so making any sighting of even a trail camera photo is pretty exciting stuff. In this situation there were two possible ways for it to play out. Either the fisher moved on or it went into the box trap setup and got caught. I really couldn’t tell because this took place during a winter storm but on this morning I was like a little kid at Christmas so full of excitement and anticipation. It was going to be the best Christmas ever, even better than a Red Ryder BB gun.

With snow covered roads I cautiously drove out to my trap. The closer I got as I walked to my setup, the more eager I became. I was picturing in my mind’s eye what my successful capture was going to look like but as I neared the trap something didn’t look right. It didn’t look right because nothing was there and the trap was still in its original position. The fisher had outsmarted me! The highest of outdoor highs was replaced with a bummed out feeling. My awesome Christmas present turned out to be the “ugly pink rabbit pajamas.”

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