Sturgeon gather to spawn along the Wolf River in Shawano, April 15, 2024. PC: Fox 11 Online
SHAWANO, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — Sturgeon Park in Shawano was living up to its name Monday afternoon.
Onlookers didn’t need to look very hard to see the prehistoric fish gathering for spring spawning. Jody Ebeling comes back every year, and says she feels like it’s a sign spring finally arriving.
“I like spring, and I like new life, so I like watching the sturgeon spawn,” Ebeling said. “You start seeing the spring flowers, and the birds, and sturgeon are one of those things.”
For others, it was a new experience. Kyra Vanden Eng brought her son, Neo, to take in the sights. She says prior years, she’s waited too long. Not this year.
“Oh yes, he’s been running me around everywhere, leading the way,” laughed Vanden Eng. “I saw a friend of mine post on Facebook that there’s the sturgeon, and I thought, I better get out there soon as I can. So I found the opportunity today, and I’m like, let’s just go see the sturgeon.”
Obviously, sturgeon don’t rely on calendar reminders or anything like that to determine when they start their spawning season, or even on day length. What they do rely on is water temperature.
The Wisconsin DNR says a water temperature of about 53 degrees is what they need to feel in order for spawning to start, and we were measuring 53 or 54 degrees in the Wolf River on Monday.
For siblings Beckett and Ruby, they got to skip school with Grandma to check out the big fish splashing around.
“I saw like maybe two hundred fins, and maybe like two of them jump out of the water. And I saw one that was swimming underwater,” said Beckett.
“And I saw one over there,” Ruby said as she pointed in the other direction from her brother.
Had they seen a bunch of sturgeon? “Yeah!” they both blurted out.
And were they having a lot of fun? It was unanimous — “Yeah!”
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