Live Animals

• The fisher cats is an opportunistic carnivore. Its diet is made up mostly of live animals, such as hares, voles, mice, red squirrels, flying squirrels, and shrews. Fishers, especially those living in the Adirondack area, enjoy the abundant porcupine population. If you can find any of these animals, it is best to set a trap with one.
  
  

Dead Animals

• Fisher cats can have a reputation of being predators of large prey, but their actual consumption of animals such as deer is limited to carrion. Fisher cats will eat large animals as road kill, or the leftovers from another predator. If you can procure roadkill, or have some fresh wild game available, it could serve as substantial bait for a fisher cat who is desperate in looking for its next meal.
  
  

Nuts and Berries

• Another favorite food of a fisher cat is a trail mix of beech nuts, wild black cherries and wild berries. In the winter, when fisher cats are still active, but fresh animals or carcasses are not readily available, try baiting traps with nuts and either dry or fresh fruit.
  
  

Setting and Baiting a Trap

• Observe the fisher cat's behavior. If they keep coming back in the same area, or they use the same path each day, this is where you should place the trap. Cover the trap with foliage so that it blends in with the surroundings and seems familiar to fisher cat. Place enough bait in the trap to keep the fisher cat alive until you next check the trap. Leave the trap overnight and check the trap daily, fisher cats often hunt and eat at night. Change the bait if you're using dead carcass that begins to smell rancid.