I will be heading north to the Maine North Woods next month to trap...mostly a water line, but want to run some footholds for fishers. I know it will be an "off" year for Fisher due to a large mast crop. Does anyone have any fruity/ sweet bait recommendations for Fisher, as I have heard they may ignore Beaver meat due to the mast crop.

Try Tom Krause 40 below not a bait but has castors,some fruit etc. in it Caven's Tree Climber is another sweet smelling lures castors,musk etc.Good luck,they both work well on early season fox and coyotes and of course raccoons.

Fisher will still go for good fresh bait on years when the mast crop is up. In the 70s and 80s before the body grip and a three day check came into effect, I very seldom used body grips on fisher.
Fresh beaver meat is the standard. Fisher respond very well to muskrat if you have it. Actually most every responds well to muskrat. Fisher really love fowl. Chicken, turkey is very good. I used to do a lot more dog training and have used quail with great success. If you are hard up for bait, beef suit is real good. You try pre-baiting with that sometime. They clean it right up. (That is a good old time bait for tree sets. Birds love it, and this creates a really good visual, as fisher do move during the day.

Strawberry or raspberry jam can be poured or spread on your baits if you want a sweet smell. Good old cheap pancake syrup works pretty good too. Fisher do have a sweet tooth. I have only seen one sweet smelling fisher lure for sale and I do not believe it is sold anymore. A friend from Vermont came up with it and sold it regionally.

You did not ask for any thoughts on lure but will offer some advice for what it is worth. Something with beaver castor, muskrat musk is good. Mink gland or weasel glands are useful.
Almost everyone likes to use a skunk LDC. I like an LDC too. My thoughts on the luring with LDC, unless it is way below zero I do not like it at the set proper. I like it close to the set and up in the air. Yes, I know that fisher, like fox will eat a fresh skunk and be tickled to get it. I just like the skunk up in the air.

I make my own fisher lure but there are good commercial lures that work. Back in the day I used to run tests all winter. Did that a lot. O'Gorman sells a real good fisher lure. Mike Syntecki (I know that is not spelled correctly) out of PA used to make a canine lure that was fantastic on fisher.

Wishing you great luck and hope most importantly you have fun. If you have any questions give me a shout. But if you had trapped here before you are probably all set.
Mac

Thanks Mac...I have not trapped maine before, but have a couple great buddies I will be trapping with.

Fisher respond well to anise paste. I use it to lure bear and frequently get fisher on my bear bait sites.

I have found beaver castor with a strong anise oil component mix to be a good fisher lure.

I stopped using anise in any formulas for fisher because it is a bear attractor. Used to find more than one cubby destroyed each year by bear.

I've seldom had that problem but then I never use the lure in my box or cubby. I always place my lure a short way from and above my cubby or box. Lure is the attracter that brings an animal to a set location. Bait is the substance that holds the animal at the set and gets it working the set until captured.

I found Anise to be as good if not better than skunk when it gets below freezing on a regular basis. There was also a lure called fisher candy that I liked. I haven't set a fisher trap since the exclusion devices. there is plenty of fisher out there though. Between the price plummeting and the law changes they've really taken off.

Makes sense. Might have to give that a whirl. Thanks.
Shorthair is correct. Some of the minty type ingredients really reach out in the cold.