Temperatures cooperate with sturgeon spearers this year.

The prolonged freezing temperatures and the forecasted warm up is about the ideal conditions for this year’s sturgeon spearing season which gets underway this weekend.

The ice had over three weeks of below freezing temperatures to form with estimated thickness of 18-20 inches in some areas. According to some graphs online, this would indicate that sturgeon spearers should have no issues with taking larger sized pick-up trucks as well as full size ice shanties out on the ice this year.

This makes two years in a row of decent ice thickness after a couple seasons of poor ice in the last decade. In 2024, spearers were faced with many areas having only 5-8 inches of ice, restricting vehicle traffic and causing what few spearers that ventured out, to use tents rather than ice shanties.

A lack of snow cover this year however is being blamed for some cracks in the ice as the sun causes some expansion in the ice. Area fishing clubs have ice bridges in place over the cracks. Its advised if you head out, to drive slow, and check in with fishing club’s social media to see where cracks and other troublesome spots may be located.