Attention Winnebago System Sturgeon Spearing
Enthusiasts:
The big question coming into today was how long
the spear fishery on the Upriver Lakes would last. We were only 2 adult
females away from the 90% trigger and 11 adult females from the 100% season
closure. Well it literally came down to the wire. At 1:50, we were
still sitting on 10 adult females, but the 11th adult female was
registered at Critter’s at 1:55 resulting in a complete season closure.
So the 2018 sturgeon spearing season on the Upriver Lakes is now over.
There were 32 fish harvested from the Upriver Lakes today, which brings the
season total to 297 sturgeon. This is very similar to last season’s
harvest of 295 fish. I plan to draft an Upriver Lakes summary report
either later today or tomorrow that will go into more detail about this season.
As a sneak preview though, I put together the following table comparing the
season length and harvest of the 2018 season to other spearing season’s since
the lottery fishery was implemented in 2007:
|
Season
|
Length (days)
|
License Sales
|
Applicants
|
Harvest
|
Success Rate
|
|
2007
|
6
|
485
|
2795
|
313
|
64.5%
|
|
2008
|
4
|
484
|
3902
|
300
|
62.0%
|
|
2009
|
5
|
490
|
4031
|
275
|
56.1%
|
|
2010
|
6
|
494
|
4228
|
312
|
63.2%
|
|
2011
|
10
|
490
|
4114
|
335
|
68.4%
|
|
2012
|
2
|
498
|
4597
|
242
|
48.6%
|
|
2013
|
4
|
491
|
4,893
|
261
|
53.2%
|
|
2014
|
3
|
469
|
5,863
|
341
|
72.7%
|
|
2015
|
5
|
484
|
6,466
|
288
|
59.5%
|
|
2016
|
7
|
484
|
5,981
|
307
|
63.4%
|
|
2017
|
16
|
483
|
6,148
|
295
|
61.1%
|
|
2018
|
4
|
484
|
6,633
|
297
|
61.4%
|
|
Average
|
6.0
|
486.3
|
4970.9
|
297.2
|
61.2%
|
Today there were 42 fish registered at stations
around Lake Winnebago bringing the season total to 229 sturgeon. Payne’s
Point registered the most fish (10) followed by Wendt’s (9), Calumet Harbor
(7), Jerry’s (6), Stockbridge (4), Waverly (4), and Quinney (4). Four
more fish 100 pounds or larger were registered today, including Kyle Jenkins
143.7 pound, 84.5” female that was registered at Jerry’s Bar in Oshkosh.
Kyle’s fish is not only the largest fish in today’s harvest, but also is the
longest fish that I have confirmed record of being harvested. Fish
records typically go from weight, and the current state record lake sturgeon
was harvested during the 2010 spearing season. That fish weighed close to
70 pounds more (212.2 pounds) than the fish Kyle speared today, but was
actually 0.3” shorter (84.2”). Fish condition (plumpness) can be
extremely variable from one fish to another, but can also be highly variable
from year to year. Strong hatches of gizzard shad and abundant red worm populations
between 2009-2012 provided great foraging conditions for lake sturgeon and fish
weights increased greatly during that time. I plan to draft a report
later in the season to describe these trends in more detail, so stay
tuned. For the time being, I have included a photo of Kyle and his fish
and a breakdown of how many fish were registered at each station during todays
harvest.
Congratulations to everyone that has harvested a
fish thus far this season and good luck to everyone still in search of a fish!
We are committed to service
excellence.
Visit our survey at http://dnr.wi.gov/customersurvey
to evaluate how I did.
Ryan Koenigs
Senior Fisheries Biologist / Winnebago
System Sturgeon Biologist
Wisconsin Department of Natural
Resources
625 E County Rd. Y, Suite 700
Oshkosh, WI 54901
Phone: (920)303-5450
Fax: (920)424-4404
- Harvest+report+%28Day+4+-+February+13%2C+2018%29.pdf
- Kyle+Jenkins_143.7+pound_84.5+inch_2-13-2018_Jerrys+Bar.jpg
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