Sturgeon spawning update - May 6, 20014
Dear Winnebago System Sturgeon Enthusiasts:
Well things got off to a slow start today, but the fish are still making their way in at the Shawano Dam. The fish are starting to show signs that they are very close to spawning there and my crew did tag 25 fish there at the end of the day today. The real story of today though was the widespread distribution of sturgeon spawning on the Wolf and Embarrass Rivers. There were fish spawning at Bamboo Bend (Shiocton), another private site in Shiocton, two sites on private property in Leeman, and Hwy 156 on the Wolf River and at Behnke’s bridge and a couple of sites on private property on the Embarrass River. With Shawano holding off today, we actually split up into three tagging crews and were nomads covering many of these sites. We tagged 19 fish at Bamboo Bend, 17 fish at a site on private property in Shiocton, 124 fish at a site on private property in Leeman, 63 fish at another site on private property in Leeman, 31 fish at Hwy 156, 25 fish at the Shawano Dam, and another 28 fish at a site on private property in the Shawano area of the Embarrass River.
For tomorrow, I am anticipating that we will have heavy spawning activity at the Shawano Dam. Hopefully the weather will be amenable to our crew tagging large numbers of fish tomorrow.
Ryan P. Koenigs
Senior Fisheries Biologist / Winnebago Sturgeon Biologist
Oshkosh Fisheries Team
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
(() phone: (920)303-5450
(() fax: (920)424-4404
(+) e-mail: Ryan.koenigs@wisconsin.gov