LAKE WINNEBAGO, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) -The final weekend of sturgeon spearing brought success to many spearers. Heading into the final day 431 sturgeon were taken on Lake Winnebago.
But the largest daily total, 60, would come Sunday to end the season. The second largest daily total—48, coming on Saturday.
DNR Sturgeon Specialist Ryan Koenigs tells FOX 11 from the start of the season fishermen and women reported poor water clarity and poor ice conditions, but both improved over the last two weeks.
“We’ve had some cold weather so ice conditions have improved and the water’s gotten cleaner from what I’m hearing.”
It certainly wasn’t a record setting year for sturgeon spearing. The DNR reported just 2,439 shanties dotting Lake Winnebago opening day, compared to nearly double that last year, when shanties totaled 4,625.
License sales were also down slightly from last year dropping from 12,897 in 2019 to 12,721 in 2020.
And the down numbers led to a few sturgeon registration stations being closed during the season. But still with the struggles, there was plenty of sturgeon to show off for hundreds of spearers.
“Our highest volume registration stations have been along the east shore. Stockbridge Harbor has really been picking up with the number of fish coming in there.”
Koenigs says 2020 will go down as an average year, with close to the number of fish harvested last year. But the sport is about making memories out on the ice with friends and families, and in that respect the season is a success.
“The success rate for spearers actually taking a fish is pretty low even when conditions are a lot more favorable. Typically, even in a shortened season when we reach the harvest caps, there may be only 15 percent of our license holders get a fish, so there’s more to the sport that brings people coming back year after year than just harvesting a fish.”
The total number of sturgeon taken on Lake Winnebago and upriver lakes in 2020 was 811.
