Poor ice bringing sturgeon spearing to a slow crawl

While warm weather and deteriorating ice conditions kept most sturgeon spearers off the ice Wednesday, February 18, 2026, there were a couple people that ventured out.

The Wisconsin DNR says only 34 sturgeon were harvested Wednesday. This included three juvenile females, 14 adult females and 17 males.

The adult female number continues to be the closest of the three to the 90% trigger, chipping away at the total, bringing it up to 83% with only 49 left to hit the trigger.

The Downtown Oshkosh station registered the most fish yesterday, with nine sturgeon.

The current totals for the entire Winnebago system are 191 juvenile females, 610 adult females and 604 males, for a total of 1,405 lake sturgeon.

Only one fish over 100 pounds was harvested yesterday. A 106 pound female was registered at the Neenah station.

The DNR says Thursday’s weather continues to be warm, and spearers, should continue to take caution, particularly around access points.