The New 9:45 Thread..

[wallyworld]

Afternoon all,

Things are going well here, lots of seminars to attend and people to talk to. MrWW helps teach 3 classes over the 4 days. Haven’t spent too many $$$ YET lol

Have a good rest of your day. Stay safe, stay healthy.

[Whopper Stopper]

Good evening everyone 

Here are the results from day 7 of the 2023 Winnebago spearing season.

            WS

Feb. 17, 2023 Harvest Update
ATTENTION STURGEON SPEARERS: Today, spearers reached between 90-99% of the harvest cap on the Upriver Lakes. Spearers with tags for the Upriver lakes can continue to spear until 1 p.m. tomorrow, Feb. 18, 2023.

Spearers with tags for Lake Winnebago may continue to harvest sturgeon on Lake Winnebago until harvest caps are reached or until the Lake Winnebago System harvest caps are reached.

Upriver Lakes harvest numbers representing 90-99% of the harvest cap, were set at 70 juvenile females, 79 adult females and 246 males.

[Whopper Stopper]

I received this from TT.....

Michigan Dept of Natural Resources

2023 Black Sturgeon season results announced. 


There were 630 registered anglers, including a good number of supervised youth; the season wrapped in just 65 minutes.
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2023 Black Lake sturgeon season results announced
Sturgeon harvest at Black Lake
After only 65 minutes of fishing, this year’s sturgeon season on Black Lake (in Cheboygan and Presque Isle counties) ended at 9:05 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 4. The season, which included spearing and hook-and-line fishing, was scheduled to run Feb. 4-8, or until the harvest quota of six lake sturgeon had been reached. 

Anglers initially were allocated a season quota of seven sturgeon, but the Michigan Department of Natural Resources set the harvest limit at six fish. This action helps accommodate the expected number of anglers and anticipates the possibility of near-simultaneous harvest of more than one fish.

There were 630 registered anglers this year, including a good number of supervised youth. According to the DNR, the harvested sturgeon ranged in size from 32 inches to 55.5 inches long and 6.4 pounds to 35.5 pounds.

The first fish was a 49-inch male that weighed 30 pounds.
Fish number two was a 55.5-inch female that weighed 35.5 pounds.
Fish three was a 54.3-inch male that checked in at 32 pounds.
Fish four was a 32-inch immature fish that weighed 6.4 pounds.
The fifth fish was a 54-inch male that weighed 34 pounds.
The sixth fish was a 39-inch male that weighed 11.8 pounds.
Only two of the harvested fish had been captured before by Michigan State University and the DNR during spring spawning runs in the Black River or from past surveys of Black Lake. The harvested 55.5-inch female originally was captured in the river in 2012, while the 54-inch male originally was tagged in the lake in 2007 and captured in the river in 2017. The sex of the 32-inch immature fish will be determined using DNA. Also, the 54.3-inch male was a known stocked fish, as it had a fin clip.

Participating anglers were notified of the season closure in a variety of ways, mainly from nearly instantaneous text alerts and ice shanty visits from DNR personnel. All methods were used to indicate the season’s end within minutes of the final fish being harvested. DNR law enforcement officials and other department personnel again were embedded in the on-ice fishing communities and were able to quickly and safely report harvested fish this year, as well as to quickly contact all lake sturgeon anglers on the ice and close the season.

Rehabilitation of lake sturgeon in the Cheboygan River watershed is a cooperative effort involving the DNR, the Black Lake Chapter of Sturgeon For Tomorrow, Michigan State University, Tower-Kleber Limited Partnership, the Bay Mills Indian Community, the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians, the Little Traverse Bay Band of Odawa Indians and the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians.

For more information on lake sturgeon in Michigan, visit Michigan.gov/Sturgeon. To learn more about all fishing opportunities statewide, go to Michigan.gov/Fishing.

               WS

[mr.clean]

Good evening unusual odor in air was reported in some parts of the Hudson river valley today some people concerned it maybe linked to chemicals released during the Ohio train derailment . No reports of anyone needing hospitalization because of the odor .
Ice Wanderer i remember Tim McCarver from his time as a part of the NY.Mets broadcast crew.
Eddie may you have been able to find parking close to the site of drawing. I will check tomorrow to see if you or your son's won any prizes . I think naval crews did find pieces of the Chinese weather balloon . Hunts2long do you know around how many people enter the walleye challenge each year.
Fish/hunt4ever  sounds like a few more weeks of ice fishing possible in your area.
Whopper Stopper thank you for the sturgeon report and for post the information Tomturkey sent you on the sturgeon season on black river and black lake in  Michigan .
Tomturkey thank you for passing the sturgeon information onto Whopper Stopper for posting .
IFF good to read you made it safely back to Tennessee . Once you have a chance to investigate may you find minimal wind caused damage around the farm . best wished for your daughter in dealing with the head and tooth aches .
Wallyworld good to read that you made it safely to buffalo and are enjoying the expo . What topic /subject is Mr.WW going to assist in teaching at the expo .

have a good and safe President's day weekend . best to all fishing.
 Steve

[masoneddie]

Good Morning Everyone,
  Feels a little more like a February morning should today, lol. Clear and 16* on the Hill, high of 36 today.

  Steve…thanks, will be hitting the road for the drawings in about 3hrs.  We’ll have our lucky charms with us, lol. There are 2,000 entries for this Walleye Challenge.     Did you happen to make it out on the ice?
  Marv…thanks again for sharing the Winny update and also Toms on the Black Lake! Wow, what a short season that was, just over an hour for the 6 fish limit!    Guess you didn’t want to be late hitting the ice that morning!! Liking the Gunsmoke practice, lol. I released a Bluegill yesterday for my Random Act Of Kindness! 
  Wally…sounds like a good time going on out in Buffalo! Enjoy the seminar’s and browsing…I’m sure you’ll find something more for the shopping cart yet, lol.   Hope you’re both feeling better! 
  Bud…glad you had safe travels back to the farm! Best wishes to your daughter. Enjoy that new AR15, nice addition to the collection!   
  FH4…it hasn’t happened in quite awhile, but there were times we had ice until April and fishable ice around Thanksgiving. Enjoy the weekend and best of luck to you and the family if hitting the ice this weekend!   
  Jeff…saw on the news the Ice Castles are closed down for the weekend due to the weather again. Hasn’t been a good go for them this season. Good luck if you’re heading out fishing today!   
  H2…it’s going to be a busy day up your way today! 

  My son Mike made me a custom UL ice rod with an antler from a buck he taken last year for a handle. I tried it out once on our trip together trying to coax some Bluegills or Crappies but had the skunk on me that trip, lol. Yesterday it was bugging me that I probably wouldn’t get another chance at landing something with it, so I said screw the weather coming in, I’m going on a fishing mission, lol.
  Hit the ice at 11:30 and as expected the winds were blowing pretty good. Stayed shallow in 5-10’ of water over the weed beds in my flipover sight fishing. At noon I had a sizable RockBass come in and take my jig, set the hook and had him to the top of the hole…hook pulled, Doh! Shortly after, had a few Crappies move in and another taker…got him! 
  Landed a 12” er for the first successful prize on the rod. Made a short video for the boys to share the accomplishment, lol. Caught a Bluegill next and released him for my Random Act Of Kindness…got rewarded with 2 more Crappies and a sizable RockBass before calling it quits after my flipover took off from a gust of wind with me in it. Thank goodness for the ice cleats digging in, looked like cat scratches for about 20’, lol. So, fishing mission accomplished, and now free of the skunk smell…maybe a sign of luck for today’s drawings??  Cawfee’s on…
  Have a great day all, be safe, best of luck to those fishing! 
 
 

[hunts2long]

15* clear and calm.

IFF, glad you had a good trip.

WS, great reports on the fishing. Short season on Black Lake.

WW, glad you are enjoying the show and feeling better.

Eddie, glad the new rod worked out for you, maybe you should put it in your back pocket today. GOOD LUCK!

Open water running in front of the house yesterday. Saw no one on this end of the lake yesterday.

Have a good day and be well....h2l

[Whopper Stopper]

Good morning Everyone

21 degrees, looks like we may get close to 30 by the afternoon. Lots of chatter from the guessers about a possible snow dumping for next week

Eddie...Best of luck at the drawings today. I have a feeling one of your crew is going to score big Awesome rod!  Good job Mike

I need to get a couple things taken care of, then I am putting my shuttle driver hat on for a trip to Rochester to pick up my b-i-l.

Hope you all have a good Saturday Best of luck to anyone hitting the ice

Stay safe and keep healthy.

           WS

[wallyworld]

Morning all,

Eddie…..congratulations on breaking in the new rod !!! Good luck today!!

WS…..thanks for all the updates. Being in NY where sturgeon are protected it blows my mind seeing all your reports!!

IFF….hopefully any damage is minimal.
Best wishes to your daughter, hope she’s feeling better.

MrC….he’s helping with a spinner tying class a friend of ours that’s a charter captain out here teaches

Have a good day. Stay safe, stay healthy.

[tomturkey]

I have needed to post on the best thread on the internet all week. It has been a weird and busy week. Temps were up in the middle 50s early in the week

The wife had a Doctors appointment on Wednesday. It was a wild drive both ways as the sustained winds were around 50 mph. We stopped to get some groceries after her appointment. Hats were flying. A woman came out of the store and her hat went flying. What a looked like a college student was on the run to get it for her.

We got around 6 inches of snow Thursday night so I spent a few hours yesterday getting that cleaned up.

Steve The wifes post-op appointment is not until the 20th. It might get interesting when her doc gets informed how an anesthesiologist inferred she was a drug addict since she took norco.

Eddie That is a neat-looking rod. It must have been a fight landing that big rock bass. My first ice fishing box was a wooden Pepsi box. Standing on end a Coleman lantern would fit inside. Milk crates were still steel back then.

Marv Thanks for posting the article for me. That sturgeon season last about that long every year. There is an open water season on the east side of the state.

I sent you three pictures from my great grandsons birthday party. I hope you will post them when you get time.

ww How is your and Mrww's cough going? You might try some blue Halls Relief cough drops. The work for me. They also work for heart burn.

Time to get breakfast. Then I need to se what is on the list the wife has for me to do.

[IFF]

Looks like everyone is up and running   This morning’s sunrise was a bright full sun clouds have cleared out.  21* guesser saying 21* warmer than yesterday.  Won’t hurt my feelings one bit.  Got bags of birdseed to unload from yesterday. Then will see what’s on a must do list

Safe travels Marv.

Good day to all with whatever

[Whopper Stopper]

Here are the the pictures that TT sent.

In the one picture there seems to be a very proud looking Great Grandpa

                WS

[fish/hunt4ever]

Well it looks like we are at 3 above up from 6 below when I got up this morning and started making waffles. Tax return just got approved so hopefully with savings and all will be able to.pay the sxs off and just have the boat payment when we go pick that up in just a little over a month hopefully if the place is open that day. We'll getting things done around the house this weekend as I am out on a business trip again and most likely gone for about 2 weeks on this go. Well better get moving and get some things moved around, more pellets and wood for all the houses. Have a great Saturday. WW hope the show is going good and bet you are finding some good deals for the fishing trips this summer. Eddie good luck on the drawings today hope you guys win some good things. Tom hope your wife is doing good with everything and the post op goes well. Have a good one everyone.

[tomturkey]

Here are the the pictures that TT sent.

In the one picture there seems to be a very proud looking Great Grandpa

                WS

The picture with my great grandson Ezra in the green sweater actually brings his Great Great Grandmother into the equation. My mother knit the sweater for my son when he was little.

The picture of my two great-grandkids is self-explanatory. Piper with the bow in her hair is seldom seen without a smile on her face. Her birthday party is on MARCH 4th, her grandpas birth date.

yes Marv there is a proud Great Grandfather in that picure. The fat guy on his knees is my oldest son. The gal on her knees to my left is my RN Granddaughter the mother of Ezra. The tall guy standing is my Grandson, Piper's dad, he is in the pipefitters union installing fire sprinklers.

Thank you for posting the pictures for me

[IFF]

  tom

[fish/hunt4ever]

Well I think i got enough wood split for the wife and mother in law. Here is the picture of my work station.

[Whopper Stopper]

Good evening everyone 

Here are the results from day 8 of the 2023 Winnebago spearing season.
         
                    WS




Feb. 18, 2023 Harvest Update


ATTENTION STURGEON SPEARERS: The sturgeon spearing season on the Upriver Lakes is now closed and Upriver Lakes spearers with unfilled tags can no longer harvest a sturgeon.

Spearers with tags for Lake Winnebago may continue to harvest sturgeon on Lake Winnebago until harvest caps are reached or until the Lake Winnebago System harvest caps are reached.

Saturday brought a sunny and cold morning with lots of action for our spearers. One hundred and five fish were harvested between Lake Winnebago and the Upriver lakes. Ninety-three fish were harvest from Lake Winnebago (11 juvenile females, 49 adult females, 33 males).

This was the last day to spear on the Upriver Lakes. Today, 12 lake sturgeon were harvested from the Upriver Lakes (0 juvenile female, 1 adult female, and 11 male). For the season, the Upriver Lakes harvested 33 juvenile females, 74 adult females, and 178 males, for a total of 285 fish.   

This year’s Upriver season lasted 8 days compared to 4 in 2022. Red worm abundance was up on the Upriver Lakes this year, but harvest was more effected by ice conditions than anything else. Access points near Indian Point made it difficult to access the lake. As a result, only one fish has been registered at the Indian Point registration station since Tuesday. The largest fish from the Upriver lakes was a 162.6 lbs., 76.1-inch female from Lake Poygan.

This year, 9,474 people applied for a tag or purchased a preference point for the Upriver Lakes. A minimum of 8 points were necessary to be drawn for a tag. With 285 fish harvested Upriver this spearing season, there was just over a 50% success rate for spearers with Upriver tags.

Today’s largest fish was a 154.0 lbs., 79.5 inch, F2 female speared on Lake Winnebago by Michael Eggers. As an F2, this female is preparing to spawn, but probably would not have spawned until the spring of 2024. When spawning, females can hold 50,000-700,000 eggs. This can be almost 30 additional pounds. At 154 pounds with only the beginning stages of eggs, we can only imagine how big this female would have weighed next year when she would have been ready to spawn.

We are halfway through the season. Even with all the weird weather, it has been a success season so far. Congrats to all successful spearers! Continue to be safe if you are headed back out tomorrow.

[mr.clean]

 Good evening ,like Eddie said felt more like february today with the high only reaching 45 instead of in the fifties to near sixty. currently 28 outside. Thankfully I have not heard of anyone one needing treatment after being exposed to the unusual odor present in parts of my area yesterday . also no alerts from any county health departments.  The young runner Karrie Baloga from my area of NY. competed in the world under 20 cross country championships earlier today. She finished in 13 Th place and the U.S. team finished the race in third place earning a bronze medal. I will leave a link at end of post for those interested .
Eddie nice gift from your son glad you finally caught some fish on the new rod .thanks for posting the photos. Good you had on cleats and were able to stop your run-away flipover. I always try to anchor my shelter to the ice to prevent such an occurance from happening. I did not get out something came up given this year's ice conditions thought it best to go with a partner or fish on a saturday/Sunday when hopefully others would be out and able to assist if i broke through the ice.
Hunts2long sounds like ice out is start on the river.
Whopper Stopper may the trip to pick-up your BIL have been a problem free one . hopefully the weather guessers are wrong and you do not see a major snowfall next week. Thank you for posting TomTurkey's photos of great grandchildren and some other family members .
Wallyworld thank you for answering my question nice you have a charter boat captian as a friend.
Tomturkey sounds like between weather and doctor's appointments you are keeping busy. thank you for sharing the photos of great grandchildren and other family members. enjoy all the time you get to spend with Piper and Ezra . Best to your wife on the post-op visit .
IFFmay the birds enjoy the seed and not leave any gifts on your vehicles .
Fish/hunt4ever good of you to lleave your wife and MIL prepared with firewood and stove pellets. Congrats on the tax return approval . Best wished for you on this work trip.

Link to newspaper story on Miss Baloga  www.recordonline.com hopefully this article stays on part of website viewable to all and not moved to subscriber section.
keep safe, stay healthy . Enjoy this Holiday weekend. best to all fishing.
  Steve

[hunts2long]

22* and cloudy.

TT, good looking family, thanks WS for posting.

WS, interesting read on the sturgeon and the number of eggs.

Mr. C, I was hoping things would start moving out in the river, it was high when it froze, so there was a lot of chunks of ice. Better to go out over time than all at once.

Eddie, waiting for your report from the drawings.

Have a good day and be well....h2l

[masoneddie]

Good Morning Everyone,
  26* and fairly calm this am, high of 43 forecasted…wish I was ice bound this morning!

  Steve…normally I would have anchored down my flip if I was staying put, but was hole hopping with it down until I marked some fish. I laid the spud bar and tow rope underneath for friction which worked good up until that blast, lol. Thanks for sharing the link!     Sorry you didn’t get out for a trip, can’t blame you for the conditions..hopefully next season we’ll get a real winter again.
  Marv…thanks for sharing the sturgeon updates and Toms pictures, awesome job!!    Hope you had safe travels yesterday running the shuttle!    We felt lucky yesterday…just didn’t pan out this time, lol.
  Tom.. thanks for sharing the beautiful pictures of the family here with us, no question of a proud Great GrandPa in there!
  FH4…nice looking work station! Sounds like you have a solid plan in place paying off the SxS before the boat arrives, well done!    Hope the airlines are on time and the job goes well. 
  Bud…probably won’t be too long before the garden starts getting some attention again!    I’m going start some seeds pretty soon.
  Wally…hope you both are great having a great time and safe travels home after the Expo wrap’s up today! 
  H2…you were spot on about the vehicles parking in both directions for at least a mile if not more, lol. We arrived around 11am and had about a 1/4 mile walk which wasn’t too bad.    I couldn’t believe how much ice was there on that section of the reservoir…definitely enough to hold a contest there anyway. They were running 4x4’s and sleds everywhere clear across the ice from Lanzis to the other side all day, lol.

  Well, we didn’t hit anything in the drawings but we had a good time trying anyway. Huge crowd, weather was actually beautiful for an outdoor event. Before the drawings started, I told my boys we weren’t greedy people, we’d just be happy hitting one cash prize to gas up our new SxS we’ll be taking home. Maybe I jinxed us…
  Having some of the family coming by today at different times, pizza and wings on the menu. Not putting the ice gear away just yet…may get a another trip or two in yet.  Cawfee’s still hot!
  Have a great day all, be safe, best of luck to those fishing!
 
 

[hunts2long]

Eddie, glad you had a good time, there is always next year. Thought maybe you would have a chance, my nephew didn't buy a ticket this year....h2l

[Drifter_016]

-54F wind chill this morning. T'was the same yesterday.
Couch is nice though.   

My local fishin' show dude released the trailer for the 2023 season.
The shows get posted after they air. 

[fish/hunt4ever]

Well looks like we are going to be cold again and then warm up, hopefully it does not warm up too fast and we have flooding around.

[Whopper Stopper]

Good afternoon everyone 

Here are the results from day 9 of the 2023 Winnebago spearing season.
         
                    WS




Feb. 19, 2023 Harvest Update

Today, 73 sturgeon were harvested on Lake Winnebago (13 juvenile females, 26 adult females, 34 males). The season on the Upriver Lakes is closed.

There was 1 fish over 100 lbs. harvested today. The largest fish harvested was an F2 female that weighed 123.6 lbs. and measured 76.1 inches long. This fish was speared by Michael Meetz and registered at the Pipe registration shack.

Tomorrow, the Neenah registration station will be closed. If you planned to register your fish there, please head to the next closest registration station. We will continue to post updates on what stations are open or closed. Locations are listed in the sturgeon season regulation packet or on the DNR sturgeon spearing webpage.

Congratulations to all successful spearers. If you are returning to the ice tomorrow, we wish you the best of luck and, as always, please be safe.

[masoneddie]

Good Morning Everyone,
  Happy President’s Day!   Cloudy and 35* this am, high of 50 today. 

  Marv…by using that aging graph, seems that sturgeon in the photo and I are about the same age…but she’s got a few inches on me!    Thank you for sharing the updates, looks like they’re inching there way to a successful season! 
  FH4…I’d like to see your last week of Februarys weather move in here right now, lol.    Hope the job goes well and the airlines were on time!   
  Dave..wow, brutal windchills!    The couch would be my choice as well, lol. Thanks for sharing the trailer, looks like an awesome show! I’ll keep an eye out for YouTube follow ups on that.    Have you fished with him before?
  Jeff…good luck today if you’re ice bound with Jon!   
  Wally…hope you had safe travels back home and found some new goodies for the boat!   
  H2..hope the lanes treated you and the team well last night!   

  Had a nice time seeing some of the family yesterday, relaxing afternoon. Talked with my youngest son about getting out for a morning or afternoon trip today. It was at the point he told me he was trying to figure out how to ask permission from my D-I-L to go on a Steelhead trip with his buddy today, lol. As of 7pm last evening, he hadn’t figured that out..
  I’m going to pack light and hit the local lake in a few. Not sure how the shorelines held, but if I can get on that would be a plus. If not, it will only cost me a gallon of gas!   Cawfee’s on…
  Have a great day all, be safe, best of luck to those fishing!

[hunts2long]

28* and cloudy!

Eddie, good luck if you get on the ice. Haven't heard of anyone I know winning anything at the drawings.

We ended up taking 3 of 4 points last night. Won the 1st game by 3 pins, loss the 2nd by 5 and ended up winning the 3rd game by 12. I bowled OK!!! Guy bowling against us rolled a 662 total, so we were lucky.

Wife has a Dr. appt. this morning and then has to get a covid test. I have to have blood work done but waiting until Tuesday, not sure if they will be there today being Presidents Day.

Hope everyone has a good day and be well....h2l

[Whopper Stopper]

Good morning everyone

+10, may see +30 by the afternoon. Starting Tuesday night through Thursday late, the guessers are saying to prepare for a trip to the "Pearly Gates" .  They are calling for about 12"- 18" over the couple days. High winds and dropping temps by the weekend they are having a ball trying to scare everybody

Dave...Nice trailer

Eddie...Best of luck if you can make it onto the ice Now that you said that I will have to check out the chart again

h2l...Sounds like a good night of bowling Hope your wife's appointment goes well.

WW...I am guessing your own bed felt good last night

If all goes as planned the s-i-l and i are going to head to the range today. She has Presidents day off so hopefully it isn't too busy.

Hope you all have a good day Best of luck to anyone hitting the ice 

Stay safe and keep healthy.

                 WS

[wallyworld]

Morning all,

H2L......best wishes to MrsH2 with her appointments 

WS......fingers crossed the range isn't too busy    thanks for all the sturgeon updates 

Eddie.....hope you're able to get on the ice today, looks like some firming temps coming at week's end 

IW.....good luck if you're chasing the trout & salmon today 

TT......thanks for sharing the family pics 

FH4......bet you're counting the days till that new boat arrives 

There really is no place like home    fun weekend, first time the show has happened since covid shut the world down, not quite what it was before but it's a start    think between diseases, mass shootings and inflation people are a little leery still or just can't afford to spend money on trivial things    can't say I didn't have moments of wondering "what if" a gun shot rings out or "what if" someone is REALLY sick with a new bug    but guess you can't live wrapped up in bubble wrap forever 

Have a good day. Stay safe, stay healthy.

[fish/hunt4ever]

Well ghe airport was good otnwas getting there this morning that was fun. Had to bust a few drifts before we found a truck stuck in the Ling drift and could not get around them, but went and got thentow rope and pulled the gal out. And then headed to the airport through town. A bit of the road was even drifted across the main paved road to the point there was only 1 lane. Well next flight here in a bit. Have a fantastic Monday everyone and stay safe in these storms. WW glad you had a good trip and hear you about the what ifs, but I once heard that if we just prepare our minds for the worst case scenario, like if someone breaks into the house that they better be ready to meet the end of a gun barrel, then we will be ready to do what is necessary to get ourselves where we need to be. But always something to be aware of.

[Drifter_016]

Eddie
No I haven't.
Just talked back and forth through DMs.
Helped him out with some SxS issues he was having.   

[Whopper Stopper]

Good afternoon/evening everyone 

Here are the results from day 10 of the 2023 Winnebago spearing season.
         
                    WS




Feb. 20, 2023 Harvest Update

Today, 26 fish were harvested on Lake Winnebago (3 juvenile females, 13 adult females, 10 males). The season on the Upriver Lakes is closed.

View the full details in today’s harvest report.

There was one 100-pound fish harvested today. The largest fish harvested was an M2 male that weighed 130.8 pounds and measured 79.5 inches long from the Stockbridge registration shack. This fish was speared by Kenneth Rach.

If you’ve visited a registration station, you may have seen big sturgeon with flat, or even bowl-shaped bellies. Sturgeon with this appearance are often females that have spawned the previous spring. This reproductive stage is called F6. Before spawning, a female’s belly becomes stretched out to accommodate all the eggs inside her. After a spawn, most of her eggs have been released and she is often left with a concave, empty belly. At the registration station, DNR staff look for signs of this spawning activity while they are identifying a sturgeon’s sex. If they see any eggs that look like salt and pepper (unsuccessfully laid eggs), then they know they have an F6 female. To learn more, visit our sturgeon registration stations and ask our friendly DNR staff about F6 females.     

Moving forward, the Neenah registration station will remain closed for the rest of the season. If you planned on registering your fish there, please head to the next closest registration station. We will continue to post updates on what stations are open or closed.









Spearing Over The Decades: 1953

The Lake Sturgeon spearing season has been a tradition for many decades.  Throughout those decades, many of the regulations, rules and season lengths have changed, but the techniques, traditions and spirit endure.  Let’s take a look back at 1953.

In 1953, Lake Winnebago’s season lasted from Feb. 1 to March 1. There was also a five-fish bag limit during the spearing season with a 30-inch minimum size limit. The elimination of the set line season on the Upriver Lakes in 1952 allowed for a second year of an experimental spearing season Upriver in 1953. While there continued to be a 30-inch minimum size limit for both Winnebago and Upriver, spearers were only allowed three fish Upriver compared to Lake Winnebago’s five-fish bag limit.   

1953 saw one of the last crystal-clear water years until the 1980s. Because of this, a record breaking 2,828 fish were speared during both the 29-day Winnebago season and 14-day Upriver season. This was significantly higher than the average 1,225 Lake Sturgeon speared throughout the rest of the 1950s. Additionally, a record 180-pound Lake Sturgeon was speared on Lake Winnebago by Elroy Schroeder from Appleton. It is still one of the top five heaviest fish speared on Lake Winnebago.

The record number of sturgeon speared in 1953 caused concerns about over harvest and the future of the Lake Sturgeon population in the Winnebago system. These concerns launched the decades-long plan to assess, research and better manage the Lake Sturgeon population.

Biologists undertook a plan to annually assess the population and set new regulations on the spearing season throughout the 1950s and into the 1960s to ensure species survival and curb any overharvest. These new regulations included season closures, a reduction in bag limits, an increase in minimum size limit, the hook and line season closure, and even the institution of the mandatory registration of all speared Lake Sturgeon.

Many of these management tools are still used today to continue to closely manage the species, allowing future generations the ability to participate in the long-held winter tradition.