Lake sturgeon spawning run update
Winnebago System Fisheries Enthusiasts:
The 2016 lake sturgeon run on the Winnebago System tributaries continues to move swiftly with day 2 of the run now in the books. This run has been very intense and we literally had fish spawning on 4 different rivers, while also spawning from Shawano all the way downstream to New London on the Wolf River. Just about every known spawning site on the Wolf and Embarrass Rivers had fish spawning activity today. With the help of volunteers and student volunteers I was able to send out three separate tagging crews throughout the Wolf and Embarrass Rivers. In total we handled 492 fish (402 from the Wolf River and 90 from the Embarrass River) from 9 different sites.
This run will likely go down as one of the fastest spawning runs in recent records (if not longer). I anticipate that intense spawning will take placetomorrow from Shiocton upstream to Shawano. Interested spectators could likely see spawning fish at Bamboo Bend in Shiocton, the Hwy 156 bridge, and at the Shawano Dam in Shawano tomorrow. I plan to have most of our crew tagging below the Shawano Dam tomorrow, with crews possibly tagging further down river as well. Tomorrow likely will be our “egg collection” day, meaning that we hope to spawn and fertilize eggs from roughly 15 females. The run likely won’t go into the weekend, or at least intense spawning, so I recommend making plans to come see the sturgeon spawn in the next 1-2 days.
Enjoy the run!