Opening Weekend Stats For Sturgeon Spearing

After two days of sturgeon spearing, 783 total sturgeon were registered speared on both Lake Winnebago and the up river lakes.

Opening day had the expected number of shanties out on the ice. 3100, about half of the usual 6000 normally seen opening day. Those numbers are down due to the recommended no car or truck traffic on the ice because of warmer than normal weather.

Most shanties had atvs or utvs outside of them, but KFIZ news did spot a handful with pick-up trucks.

Saturday saw a total of 522 sturgeon speared with 21 of them being over 100 pounds.

Sunday’s numbers were drastically lower as temperatures reached into the 40s with sunny skies. This likely caused a lot of spearers to come off the ice early.

Sunday had 261 sturgeons speared with only 5 being above 100 pounds.

The DNR weighing station near Pipe leads all stations with 183 sturgeons registered. 84 more than the next highest which is southwest Winnebago.

Spearers on the upriver lakes reported cloudy water Sunday, likely due to run-off from melting snow as a result of the warm weather.

The 3 day forecast is calling for mostly sunny conditions with temperatures in the 40s. Wednesday looks to be really messy on the ice as rain moves in Tuesday night and the low only drops to around 40 degrees.

Spearers returning to the ice this week are urged to check with their local fishing club for up-to-date ice conditions.