Sturgeon spearing season past the half-way mark – numbers remain low

The second weekend of the 2025 sturgeon fishing season is in the books, and there were no surprises Saturday or Sunday.

With bad water clarity continuing, numbers remained low with only 36 total sturgeon speared Saturday. 24 of those were speared on Lake Winnebago with 12 speared on the up river lakes. three fish over 100 pounds were registered Saturday, two at the Stockbridge station and one at Quinney. The numbers were likely extra low as heavy snow was falling for much of the day.

Sundays numbers improved slightly with 58 total fish speared. 40 on Winnebago and 18 on the up river lakes. Three more 100 pound plus fish were speared Sunday with two registered at the downtown Oshkosh station and one at the southwest Winnebago station. This brings the total 100 pound plus fish speared so far up to 38.

As we’re just past the half way point of the season, the upriver harvest cap that looks most likely to get met first is males which is at 78%.

Lake Winnebago harvest caps are still well into the hundreds away from being met yet and the season is almost guaranteed to go the full 16 days.

The Pipe registration station will remain closed due to the lack of spearers in the area.