Winnebago Sturgeon Spearing Report - Tuesday February 12, 2013
The 4th day of the 2013 Sturgeon Spearing Season on the Winnebago System is in the books with a total harvest today of 7 sturgeon on Lake Winnebago and 26 fish from the Upriver Lakes. The North shore of Lake Winnebago continues to be quiet with no fish registered today at our Waverly Beach and Stockbridge Harbor locations. I was at Quinney during much of the morning and spearers there were reporting that water clarity may be improving in certain areas of the lake. Our DNR staff will try to get some water clarity readings before the upcoming weekend to better determine water clarity conditions. The largest fish harvested from Lake Winnebago today was registered at Wendt’s by Al Zangl, weighing 110.2 pounds and measuring 70.7”!
The 2013 sturgeon spearing season on the Upriver Lakes closed at 12:30 PM today with 261 fish being harvested over the four day season. John Vandersanden’s 73.2”, 110.6 pound sturgeon was the largest fish harvested on the Upriver Lakes today as well as the largest fish harvested on the system today. The 4 day season is tied for the 2nd shortest season that we have had on the Upriver Lakes since the lottery fishery went into place in 2007, the 2012 season was the shortest (2 days). The big fish trend on the Upriver Lakes continued this year with 10 fish (3.8% of harvest) being harvested that were in excess of 100 pounds. The largest fish of the 2013 spear fishery on the Upriver Lakes was Robert Prahl’s 72.9”, 124.5 pound female lake sturgeon that he harvested on opening day. More information about the history of the Upriver Lakes spear fishery can be viewed in the attached sturgeon vignette.