2023 Sturgeon Spearing Round Up

The 2023 Sturgeon Spearing Season wrapped up Sunday afternoon, and despite sketchy ice conditions through much of the season, spearers were able to get
on the ice each day.

53 sturgeon were speared on Lake Winnebago yesterday bringing the Lake Winnebago and up river lakes total to 1405 sturgeon speared.

285 sturgeon were speared on the up river lakes before a cap was reached for female sturgeon about half way through the season.

1120 were speared on Lake Winnebago.

46 sturgeon weighing more than 100 pounds were speared including a whopper 177 pounder.

The southeast corner of Lake Winnebago saw the highest harvest for the season. The Pipe registration station took the lead in number of fish registered opening
weekend with 124 fish and consistently had the highest registration numbers throughout the season with a final count of 399 fish.

Opening weekend had a count of near 3000 shacks on the ice. About half what was counted opening weekend of the 2022 season.

The numbers were likely down due to ice conditions not being conducive for truck traffic due to warmer than normal weather leading to thinner ice than what would have been desired.