Sturgeon speared on Lake Winnebago, February 18, 2021. PC: Fox 11 Online
FOND DU LAC COUNTY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — As the home stretch approaches of what many call a very slow sturgeon spearing season, one place is seeing a lot of activity.
About half of all fish registered during the campaign have come from the Southwest Winnebago Station.
On a very sunny Thursday morning, members of the West Shore Fishing Club say the landing at Wendt’s on the Lake, is in rough shape. At the DNR Registration Station nearby, Josh Hungerford brings in the first sturgeon of the day.
“It was a slow morning. We figured the fish were starting to move off the rocks, mid-day, and sure enough, around 11:00 or so, this one came through, and yeah,” said Josh Hungerford, Fond du Lac.
The two-man DNR crew works as a team.
“We’ll weigh them first. Then we’ll measure length, and scan for a pit tag. So that’s a passive integrated transponder. It’s the little tag that we search for. That will let us know if we handled that fish before or not,” said Kyle Olson, DNR Fisheries Technician.
DNR Fisheries Technician Kyle Olson says some of the fish have been captured during the spawning season. He says the scientific information helps form population estimates for the prehistoric fish. He says some sturgeon have a history that can be tracked.
“We don’t know that information here. We just get the tag number. And then, at a later date, we’ll go through and send out that information to that spearer,” said Olson.
And while the 16-pounder may not be the biggest of the season, Josh Hungerford says that’s okay. It’s his seventh successful year in a row, and his 12th sturgeon overall. He says he will always remember the 2024 campaign.
“It’s just family tradition. It’s always been something that we’ve always done, and always look forward to it every year,” he said.
According to the DNR, those 10 sturgeon spearing registration stations will be removed, checked over, and go into storage, until next year.
A total of five sturgeon were harvested on Lake Winnebago Thursday.
With those numbers, the closest-to-cap category on Lake Winnebago is the juvenile females, at just over 14 percent of the cap, while none were speared on the Upriver Lakes.
And on the Upriver Lakes, closest-to-cap is adult females, which is at 37 percent of the cap.
Since opening day, 388 sturgeon have been harvested throughout the Winnebago system.
Sturgeon spearing season ends Sunday.
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