License Sales Down For Sturgeon Spearing Season

Fewer people bought sturgeon spearing licenses for the upcoming season than for the 2016 season. DNR Sturgeon Biologist Ryan Koenigs says you are still talking about nearly 13,000 people who bought licenses for the season on Lake Winnebago and the Upriver Lakes. He says the Upriver Lakes is capped at 500 licenses while they sold about 12,400 licenses for the Lake Winnebago spear fishery. He says they are still around average for the amount of licenses sold for the season. He says if you look at license sales for the last four or five years they are right around that average, but sold about 600 to 700 fewer licenses than they did for the 2016 season. Koenigs says the success of sturgeon spearers during the previous season does have an impact on license sales. He says with the dirty water and a reduced harvest in 2016 they were expecting license sales to go down.