2026 sturgeon spearing season only 105 adult females away from ending. Upriver lakes season already done

The third day of the 2026 sturgeon spearing season is done and the upriver lakes season is done for the year as the cap for adult females has been reached there.

According to the Wisconsin DNR, the last time there was a three-day season or shorter on the up river lakes was in 2014, when the season was also three days.

There were a total of 279 sturgeon speared on the Upriver lakes this year. 39 juvenile females, 76 adult females and 164 males. 

On Lake Winnebago, another 202 sturgeon were harvested Monday. The northeast stations are still registering the most with 31 at North Winnebago, 73 at Stockbridge and 31 at Quinney.

The current totals for the entire Winnebago system are 161 juvenile females, 554 adult females and 545 males for a total of 1,260 sturgeon.

The DNR adds that 105 adult female sturgeon remain to be speared until the 90% trigger is reached. While they expect numbers to drop off a little during the week, there were 107 adult females harvested Monday. So spearers, should be monitoring the numbers and any season closures.

Another 10 fish over 100 pounds were harvested throughout the system Monday, bringing the season total up to 41.