Sturgeon Spearing Daily Report: Day 16 February 28, 2016
Winnebago System Sturgeon Spearing Enthusiasts:
The 2016 sturgeon spear fishery on the Winnebago System is now officially over with a total harvest of 703 fish (396 from Lake Winnebago and 307 from the Upriver Lakes). I was expecting a decrease in harvest today as many spearers pulled their shacks yesterday. That was indeed the case as only 8 fish were registered today. The largest fish was Mitchell Schroeder’s 76.5”, 93.0 pounder registered at Stockbridge Harbor (photo).
There was only 1 fish registered at Wendt’s today, but there is a pretty good story behind the fish. Logan Hoodie was the lucky spearer and this was the first fish that he had every speared (51.8”; 28.3 pounds; photo below). I wanted to include this story in today’s report because Logan’s father, Bob, is a colleague of mine working in our fisheries program. Bob is the supervisor at Asylum Bay Fisheries Operations Headquarters and is a spearer himself. Bob has never been fortunate enough to harvest a fish himself, so Logan will now have family bragging rights. Hopefully Bob will be able to break the curse in future season to even the score. This is just another example that success is not always defined by how many years you spear or how many hours spent in a shanty, rather spearers simply need to be in the right spot at the right time. I frequently hear stories of people spearing for 15+ years and not getting a fish, while others see fish on the first morning of their career. That’s just the nature of the sport!
I will be drafting some summaries of this season in the coming weeks, but I wanted to provide a couple of preliminary comparisons. First, we have fairly comprehensive harvest data from Lake Winnebago dating back to the 1941 season (except 1944 and 1945), which in essence is 74 years of harvest data. This seasons harvest of 396 fish from Lake Winnebago is the 55th largest (26thpercentile; attached table shows annual harvest data). Additionally, there were 19 fish harvested that were 100 pounds or larger (8 from Lake Winnebago and 11 from the Upriver Lakes). This equates to 2.0% of the harvest from Lake Winnebago and 3.6% of the Upriver Lakes (figures below). The percentage of 100+ pound fish actually increased in the harvest on the Upriver lakes, but remained steady on Lake Winnebago. This difference is likely attributable to the difference in the predominate diet items (gizzard shad on the Upriver Lakes compared to lake fly larvae on Lake Winnebago). We will have to wait until the data are entered from this season to see how much condition changed from last year, but visually it appeared that the fish were in better condition this season.
I was asked to summarize this season by a few reporters today. Overall, I think that this season went as we would have predicted. Water clarity conditions were not ideal and I was predicting a 16-day season on Lake Winnebago. However, after reflecting further I think that this season was a success given the conditions. The lakes were still open in early January and there was concern of whether there would even be a season. Luckily we did get some cold weather to make ice, but then the water was extremely dirty at time of ice formation. I heard numerous reports of water so dirty that you could hardly see the bottom of the ice in some areas. However, clarity improved to about 9-10’ on Lake Winnebago and 7’ on the Upriver Lakes in around a month. So it was a blessing in some ways to just have a season, much less to have a system-wide harvest of >700 fish. Further, the 2016 harvest may have been below average, but the season provided another opportunity for spearers to renew traditions and make memories of another spearing season. The best success story is that there doesn’t appear to have been any real safety issues during the season, so everyone was able to pursue their fish safely. I’m signing off now for at least the next few days until I have more information to send out, but thank you to everyone for making the 2016 sturgeon spear fishery another safe and successful season!
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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
Ryan.koenigs@wisconsin.gov