Winnebago System Lake Sturgeon Spawning Update
Fellow Sturgeon Enthusiasts:
It's that time of the year again (mid-April) and some people are starting to question when the sturgeon will start spawning on the Wolf River and other tributaries to the Winnebago System. Well, fish have been spawning since Tuesday on the upper Fox River from Eureka to Princeton. The sturgeon run on the upper Fox River usually occurs prior to and is much smaller than the run on the Wolf, but there has been limited spawning activity observed in Princeton every day since Tuesday. Further about a dozen fish were observed spawning in Eureka on Wednesday and I heard reports of a few fish spawning in Berlin last night (Thursday).
As for the Wolf River, I just concluded a scouting run to a few known sturgeon spawning sites from New London upstream to Shawano and the water temperatures are still below what fish typically start spawning at. Temperatures ranged from 46 degrees in Shawano to 48 degrees at lower sites in Shiocton and New London. Typically, sturgeon will start spawning when water temperatures are 52-58 degrees, so there is some warming that needs to occur prior to spawning. The good news is that this weekend will bring much warmer temperatures. The bad news is that I don't think it will be enough to induce spawning activity this weekend. If I had to guess, we would start to see spawning activity sometime between Monday and Wednesday of next week.
I plan to send out daily emails, as in years past, summarizing our crews tagging efforts for that day and predicting where spawning activity can be viewed the following day. If you plan to see sturgeon spawn this spring, please make sure to travel to a spawning site within a day or two of hearing reports as fish don't spawn at sites for an extended period of time. In fact, peak spawning only occurs for 1-2 days at a given location, so it all happens pretty quick.
I have attached a copy of a summary report of our past tagging efforts from 2010-2016 in attempts to get people fired up about the upcoming spawning run. If you haven't already witnessed this event in the past, I strongly suggest you make plans to do so this spring, you won't be disappointed!
Ryan Koenigs
Senior Fisheries Biologist / Winnebago System Sturgeon Biologist
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
625 E County Rd. Y, Suite 700
Oshkosh, WI 54901
Phone: (920)303-5450
Fax: (920)424-4404