Sturgeon at Winneconne sturgeon registration station, February 16, 2026. PC: Fox 11 Online
WINNECONNE, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — As the sturgeon spearing season on Lake Winnebago rolls on, the campaign on the Upriver Lakes is coming to a close.
After a busy weekend, DNR Sturgeon Biologist Margaret Stadig says harvest caps on the Upriver Lakes of Poygan, Winneconne and Butte des Morts have been reached, and at 1 p.m. Monday, the season ended.
“This is really good. It’s nice seeing a lot of people being very successful on the Upriver Lakes. We haven’t had a short Upriver season in two years, which is very uncommon,” said Stadig.
Stadig says 500 lottery winners participated in the three-day season.
“There’s technically two seasons. We have the Lake Winnebago season, and then we have the Upriver season. We’ve separated those because the Upriver Lakes tends to be shallower. They’re not as driven by water clarity or ice conditions or things like that. Because there’s fewer people, success rate tends to be a lot higher than, say, on Lake Winnebago. Upriver, we can see anywhere between 40-60% of our spearers are successful within a year, compared to Lake Winnebago, where it’s only about 8%,” she said.
At the Winneconne station, Joe Stark from Fond du Lac registered a 33-pound, 55.6-inch sturgeon he speared on Lake Poygan.
“I just figured today’s the last day. We know there’s a lot of fish in the area, but like I said, we were hoping for a big one. But 30 pounds, not a bad fish,” said Stark.
15 minutes later, Troy Kettlewell from Omro registered a 49.8-pound, 64.5-inch sturgeon he speared on Lake Butte des Morts.
“I was hoping the season would have been a little longer, especially when you’re still holding onto a tag. But I was fortunate enough to get one, so good for me,” said Kettlewell.
“It’s nice to see kind of a normal season, where there’s enough ice and good access. Spearers are out there being successful,” said Stadig.
The last time Wisconsin had a three-day or shorter season was in 2014, when it also lasted just three days.
A total of 279 sturgeon were speared on the Upriver Lakes this year: 39 juvenile females, 76 adult females and 164 males. The DNR says about 50% of the 500 spearers that drew an Upriver tag successfully speared a sturgeon this year.
On Lake Winnebago, another 202 lake sturgeon were harvested Monday: 26 juvenile females, 107 adult females and 69 males. The northeast stations are still registering the most, with 31 at North Winnebago, 73 at Stockbridge and 31 at Quinney.
The current totals for entire Winnebago system are 161 juvenile females, 554 adult females and 545 males, for a total of 1,260 sturgeon.
The DNR reminds that 105 adult female sturgeon remain until the 90% trigger for the entire Winnebago system is hit. Officials expect the effort to drop off a little, but there were 107 adult females harvested Monday, so spearers should monitor the numbers and any season closures.
Another 10 fish over 100 pounds were harvested throughout the system Monday. The largest was a 130.1-pound, 76.0-inch, F4 female speared by Cole Woelfel, registered at the downtown Oshkosh station.
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