Opening for sturgeon may not be as big
Hauling a behemoth out of a small hole in the ice is no easy feat.
Jonathan Eiden and his father maneuvered a 171-pound sturgeon out of the frigid waters of Lake Winnebago on opening day of the 2019 sturgeon spearing season with some amazement.
For 20 years, the Appleton father and son have traditionally bonded over this unique winter sport, and here was their prize — the largest sturgeon harvested during the annual hunt for a prehistoric fish found in only four Wisconsin lakes.
“We didn’t realize how large it actually was until I laid down beside it on the ice. It was longer than I was — more than 7 feet,” Eiden said.
Of the 786 lake sturgeon harvested last year, 32 weighed more than 100 pounds, said Ryan Koenigs, senior fisheries biologist for Wisconsin Department of Resources.
The ancient bottom-feeders can live for more than a century and lurk exclusively in Lake Winnebago, and the Upriver Lakes of Butte des Morts, Winneconne and Poygan in the northeastern part of the state.
The allure of this cold-weather sport centers around a culture you just can’t experience elsewhere, Koenigs said. Most years, more than 5,000 ice shanties dot Lake Winnebago, turning it into a veritable shanty town for sturgeonspearing license holders.
The 2020 sturgeon spearing season kicks off at 7 a.m. Saturday and will run for 16 days or until DNR harvest caps are reached, whichever comes first. This season, 12,248 licenses were sold for Lake Winnebago and 473 for the Upriver Lakes.
However, ongoing reports of poor ice conditions could make for a dangerous year and prompt some spearers to opt out, said Scott Blanck, president of Friendship Fishing Club on the west end of Lake Winnebago.
The latest ice measurements indicate only 5 to 6 inches laid down in most spots, with up to a foot only seen farther north.
At least 12 inches of solid ice buildup is needed to support the big trucks that make their way out onto the lakes, ice shanties in tow. They travel along roads plowed and maintained by local clubs and conservation groups in the area.
But with weather forecasts predicting mild temperatures and no deep freeze in the near future, Blanck said many of the fishing clubs around the Winnebago System are warning people to stay off the ice for now and have agreed to forgo building any roads unless the situation changes.
“Things may be different after the season opens, maybe in the second week, but we aren’t willing to take any chances,” he said.
Spearers will be limited to traveling out on the ice on ATVs, snowmobiles and four-wheel vehicles, and will most likely be replacing their heavy shacks with alternate equipment, like lightweight, pop-up shanties, Koenigs said.
In Oshkosh, Don Herman, a member of the Otter Street Fishing Club, said more ice could be gained by opening day as long as temperatures drop to around 15 degrees at night. A flight he took over Lake Winnebago on Jan. 28 showed no open water, he said.
Herman operates a business called
SUNK? Dive and Ice Service that specializes in retrieving vehicles that break through thin ice and into lakes. The cost is between $2,500 and $5,000.
The Fond du Lac County Sheriff ’s Office is reporting ice thickness on Lake Winnebago ranging from 2 to 8 inches on the south end. Sheriff Ryan Waldschmidt said they will have a fourdeputy ice dive team in a truck — with an airboat in tow — out Saturday and Sunday of opening weekend, traveling the perimeter of the lake.
Dirty water, no shad, offer more challenges
Water clarity can also make or break a sturgeon spearing season, Koenigs said, and murky water has been a pattern the last few years. Typically, if spearers can’t see at least 12 feet down, the chances of spearing a sturgeon will be reduced.
Last year’s harvest of 796 sturgeon system-wide is far below some of the numbers seen in years past. In 2015, a total of 2,158 fish were speared — the sixth-largest harvest on record.
“In 2019, the clearer water up north resulted in the northern registration stations at Stockbridge Harbor and Waverly Beach registering the most fish,” he said.
When DNR staff checked water quality last week by walking out to locations off the west and north shores, water clarity hovered around 7 or 8 feet.
Many spearers have also expressed concern over the lack of gizzard shad in the lakes, Koenigs said. Sturgeon get plump feeding on this fatty forage fish when they are in abundance. When they aren’t available, the sturgeon rely on lake fly larvae, known as red worms, found in the sediment at the bottom of the lake.
“This means the sturgeon will be feeding down in the deeper basins — at around 18 to 21 feet — in areas found near the north and east shores,” he said.
It’s a celebration of really big fish
Ice quality has forced the cancellation of winter events that traditionally draw hundreds of people to the state’s largest inland lake this time of year.
including Oshkosh’s annual Bike Across Bago and Walk Across Lake Winnebago that had been planned for Saturday.
Koenig said no matter what the weather brings, die-hard spearers won’t be deterred. This year’s spearing season marks the hunt’s 80th year, and self-sustaining populations of lake sturgeon are at an estimated 18,500 adults females and 24,000 males.
This year’s caps are set at 430 juvenile females, 950 adult females and 1,200 males. If those numbers are reached before Feb. 23, the season will close early, which isn’t likely, Koenigs said. It’s been six years since harvest caps were reached.
There is mandatory, in-person registration of all harvested sturgeon, and those fish must be at a station by 2 p.m. the day of harvest.
Spearing enthusiasts interested in receiving daily updates during the 2020 spearing season can sign up on the DNR’s website, by visiting the sturgeon page.