OSHKOSH, Wis. (WSAU) — Today is your chance to chat with Department of Natural Resources experts ahead of the annual Lake Winnebago sturgeon spearing season.
DNR senior fisheries biologist Ryan Koenigs says this is a good chance for you to get basic questions answered before you head out on the ice. “The live chat should provide people a chance to ask myself and other fisheries experts and law enforcement question that might have about the sport of sturgeon spearing and what to expect about the upcoming year.” Koenigs says they get all sorts of questions each year that will be covered in today’s session. “Wanting to know the updated regulations, to how fast the fish grow, how big they can get, how long they’ve been around, what they eat. You know, general spearing tactics like what do you suggest to use for decoys or information like that.”
But it’s not just ice fishermen that will be out on the lake or in the chat today. Koenigs says you can expect to see a city of people out on the ice on Lake Winnebago once the spearing starts. “It’s literally magnitudes more people that maybe don’t take part in sturgeon spearing but they have a friend that does and they sit in the shanty with them, or they come out on the ice, or come to our registration stations to take part in the social aspect of sturgeon spearing.”
This year’s harvest cap is up as well, raised to 878 this year, up 6 percent from 828 a year ago.
Today’s chat starts at noon on the DNR’s website at http://dnr.wi.gov/chat/expert.html and you can log in after the chat is done to read the transcript and see what you missed.
Spearing opens at 7am on Valentine’s Day and runs until the harvest cap is reached.
