I know where I'll be setting my Fisher trap!

[Grayfox]

I just got my Fisher tag Friday and it looks like Mitch and I will only be getting the one this year but luckily we have at least one coming in steady along with a family of three coons. If he doesn't get one of the bears hopefully we'll be able to put up a little fur this fall.

[JBonMiltona]

I saw this post about fishers and was hoping to ask a question to those whom might be a bit more familiar with them.

I could swear I saw a fisher 11-12 miles north of Alexandria, could it be possible?

No picture, we were hunting squirrel.

No doubt in the weasel family.

It had dark brown fur, first spotted it two feet up the trunk of a tree, it came down to the ground, romped around a bit, up the tree 2 or 3 feet and back down, ( had to let my buddy know so I finally made a sound), turned to look at me and took off into the dense underbrush, over a dead log and gone.

The only other option I can think of is a big mink (seemed like a huge mink if it was one).

It was longer than a man's arm and bigger around than a good sized forearm, a bushy tail that made up about 1/3 of it's entire length.

Negatives to it being a fisher. Mink can climb trees. It was a fairly dense forest(ok) with very few pine trees (not so good). It really wasn't a continuous forest. Location was less than a mile from lake (mink fairly common in area).

[creepworm]

I don't know for sure but I think I saw one 2 years ago while deer hunting 12 miles west of Wadena. It looked minkish but was much bigger than a mink. It was fairly early in the morning so maybe I am way off, but I do think I saw one in that area.

[JBonMiltona]

12 west of wadena...about the same kind of territory.

The forest does connect from east of miltona (around lake irene) and then on the north side of miltona, even if there is hwy 29 to cross the forest basically connects from there to the far north west end of lake miltona.

I am still reading up on minnesota specific fisher sitings and conditions.

It might be a combo planter of a younger fisher moving, fishers in minnesota have been know to not require a pine forest and the dense type of conditions that our summer have created. Could be a young guy moving around.

[Trapper J]

You more than likely saw a fisher.Their range has been expanding,especially that way,but their over all population is down.They dont specifically need coniferous forrests.Their fun to watch do their thing.

[Sorgy]

It could have been a pine martin. They tend to be 1/2 the size of an adult fisher and about 3 times the size of a mink. Both Martins and Fisher's can climb trees. Fishers are a very dark brown and pine martins tend to be a little lighter in color with a lighter face. I have not seen a fisher with a lighter face or mask as a martin would.

[Trapper J]

Highly unlikely it was a marten.A marten is slightly bigger than a mink.Their color is a pretty broad range from light-brownish-orange to super dark brown.A fishers color ranges also from light-brownish-gray to real dark brown.Fisher size -Adult males are roughly fox size.females 1/3 to sometimes 1/2 the size of males.And of course they dont stand as tall as fox.Hope that helps.

[Archerysniper]

I saw a fisher while bowhunting last night at about 4:30pm up a tree eating berries, I got a arrow on the string thinking it was a cat at fist till I used my range finder to see what it was exactly, this was in the braham/stanchfield area.

[JBonMiltona]

I got a very good look at it through the scope on the .22. It was very dark brown (almost black, but not) with a very faint secondary color, almost a deep red cast or hue to it and it had rounded ears.

I have only watched pine martins at the zoo or on video and I am pretty sure it wasn't one.

We buried a large male mink a couple of years ago (even the old-timers who watched me bury it said it was a big mink), it washed up on shore a few days after ice out and it was the biggest mink I had seen and this guy was considerably larger.

...and thank you to everybody responding and helping with my possible sighting of a fisher.

It's cool to hear about other sightings and interactions with fishers. The weasel family is very interesting if you ask me.

[swamptiger]

Sounds like a fisher. The third photo above is a good representation of color, although they get much darker - almost black sometimes.

Pine martin are typically lighter colored, smaller, and with shorter hair.

Fisher are a roving hunter, and they can cover a lot of ground.