MENOMINEE COUNTY, WI (WTAQ) – Still no word on when this spring’s sturgeon spawning will begin on the Wolf River.
DNR Fisheries Biologist Ryan Koenigs says fluctuating weather conditions have it made difficult to predict since the pre-spawning behavior typically does not begin until water temperatures reach 52-58 degrees.
Within one or two days of the fish starting to spawn, Koenigs says the males begin “cruising up and down the rocks.”
Koenigs notes the uncertainty is farily common, with last year’s consistently warm mid-April temperatures that made the start time more predictable serving as an outlier.
Most often, Koenigs says the spawning takes place somewhere between April 20-26.
The sturgeon spawning is an annual celebration of the fish on the Menominee Indian Reservation.
A memorandum of understanding between the Menominee and the DNR calls for a minimum of 100 fish to be delivered to the Wolf River each spring for ten years. This is year six.
After spawning, most fish are believed to return to the Lake Winnebago system.
Koenigs says deliveries of 46 and 59 sturgeon have been made to the Wolf River this spring, in addition to the 45-50 that arrived last fall.
However, Koenigs notes only 135-140 of the fish will be part of the spawning since 15 sturgeon are reserved for the Menominee Tribe’s annual ceremony.
The tribe plans to smoke the sturgeon and serve them during a Saturday feast at Menominee High School.
