OSHKOSH, WI (WTAQ) – Sturgeon spearing season is behind us, and sturgeon spawning season is just around the corner.
But DNR officials say the spawning runs aren’t going to happen quite yet. Sturgeon Biologist Margaret Stadig says it’s a very weather-dependent cycle.
“Sturgeon spawn usually between 50 and 55 degrees on average, and in the river we’re still looking at below 40 degrees at many of the spawning sites,” Stadig told WTAQ News. “The weather’s been kind of unpredictable lately. We’ve had a couple warm days two weeks ago, and some really cold weather…I couldn’t give you quite a date yet, because as you know, Wisconsin weather varies so significantly. It’s too far out to predict that, but it’ll still be a little while.”
Even the recent warm-up only brought water temperatures from about 35 degrees up to just under 40 degrees. That’s why Stadig says it’s still a bit too early to tell when the sturgeon runs could actually begin.
The sturgeon runs themselves, however, are a vital piece of the ecosystem and the sturgeon population management.
“This is where sturgeon will go and spawn – and what we call recruitment, and recruit into the next population…They’re creating new little sturgeons that will hopefully grow up to be the massive sturgeon we see later on,” Stadig said. “It’s always during the spring where they get the pulse of warmer weather along with pulses of that water flow. You get snow melting from rain, and all that triggers sturgeon to migrate upstream where they find their spawning habitat.”
You can learn more about sturgeon spawning and even where to view the sturgeon runs from – on the DNR’s website.
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