Wisconsin sturgeon season draws a crowd

PIKE, Wis. — From our breakfast table in Jim and Linda’s Restaurant, we had a front-row seat to see the steady line of cars easing down the boat launch and onto Lake Winnebago.

The hundreds of cars fanning out across the lake could only mean one thing: Wisconsin’s 2011 sturgeon spearing season was upon us.

Wisconsin is one of few states that allow a sturgeon-spearing season, and it’s a season steeped in tradition. The first sturgeon-spearing season in Wisconsin was in 1903, and many fishermen who participate have been doing it for decades. This year a record 12,443 anglers bought licenses to spear sturgeon. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources counted 4,321 shanties on Lake Winnebago on opening day, Feb. 12.

With breakfast out of the way, our group of five left the landing to head out onto Lake Winnebago and soon arrived at our sturgeon shacks about a mile from shore on the lake’s southwest side. Sam Wiersma of Cambria, Wis., was my spearing partner that day and we had our own shack, while his dad, grandfather and uncle all shared one giant ice shanty with three holes cut into it.

According to the Wisconsin DNR, just 13 percent of Wisconsin’s spear fishermen were successful in spearing a legal fish — 36 inches or better — on Lake Winnebago last year. The odds are better on upstream lakes Poygan, Winneconne and Buttes Des Morts, where a lottery keeps angler numbers down and the sturgeon tend to concentrate in a much smaller area. On those lakes, 66 percent of anglers connected in 2010.

But there Sam and I were on Lake Winnebago, and even with our long odds we could not have been more optimistic. This year was Sam’s third and my second, and we were brimming with the hope that only an opening day can provide. With our spears mounted above our holes in the ice, we settled in for six hours of staring into the murky green square.

Decoys for spearing come in many shapes, sizes, colors and designs. Many anglers hand-carve elaborate fish decoys in hot pink, chartreuse and orange. Others use bowling balls and PVC pipe. Sam and I had chosen the latter, both dropping our PVC pipes on a rope in the hopes of getting a curious sturgeon to look them over. Sam had seen his dad successfully spear a lake sturgeon five years before using a PVC pipe decoy and we thought that we would try it as well.

It was a perfect day to be out on the lake, sunny and 30 degrees, but water clarity was inconsistent at best. Many spear fishermen reported visibility of up to 15 feet, but others said they could see only about 8-11 feet down. Our holes matched the poorer group.

Two hours passed without a sturgeon, and the two of us began to feel the effects of our 4 a.m. wake-up call. Sam tried to convince me to watch the holes so he could take a nap, but my opinion was that just the opposite would have been a better arrangement. The negotiations stalled, so we went back to staring into our 4x6-foot watery windows and praying that a giant sturgeon would slowly swim into view.

Once a sturgeon is speared, all hell breaks loose. The inside of the shanty that we were in had two holes, two spears, a gaffe and two chairs. When the sturgeon is speared through the back, water erupts from the hole and mud turns the water black. The fish is usually flailing and trying to swim away with a 25-pound steel spear in its back. One would think the speared fish would simply sink to the bottom, but many lake sturgeons weigh more than a hundred pounds. In 2010 Lake Winnebago yielded a state record fish that 212.2 pounds. Sam and I had agreed in advance that if one of us speared a sturgeon the other would immediately purge the shanty of chairs and any other equipment to make room for bringing the fish through the ice.

Time passed slowly throughout the day as we talked about fishing, hunting and life in general. Two packs of venison hot sticks and three sodas were consumed to keep us in tip-top spearing shape. Once 12:30 p.m. rolled around we knew we were done for the day.

Our party wasn’t successful on opening day, but others were. On opening day, anglers Lake Winnebago harvested 39 juvenile females, 126 adult females and 118 males. The upriver lake harvest for opening day was 18 juvenile females, 37 adult females and 107 males. That made a total harvest of 442 sturgeon, which was quite a bit lower than last years 656.

On the second day, anglers harvested 265 fish, down from 442 harvested in 2010. Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources sturgeon biologist Ron Bruch said 43 fish that topped 100 pounds were taken over the opening weekend, including a 132.6-pound female.

The season ends when sturgeon quotes are met. This year the Lake Winnebago harvest cap is 316 juvenile females, 711 adult females and 960 males. On the upriver lakes the caps are 79 juvenile females, 79 adult females and 240 males.

Ron Bruch, a sturgeon biologist with the Wisconsin DNR, said 23 fish were registered that weighed over 100 pounds, 18 on Lake Winnebago and five from the upriver lakes. Last year 34 fish were harvested that weighed over 100 pounds on opening day.