| Saturday brought a sunny and cold morning with lots of action for our spearers. One hundred and five fish were harvested between Lake Winnebago and the Upriver lakes. Ninety-three fish were harvest from Lake Winnebago (11 juvenile females, 49 adult females, 33 males).
This was the last day to spear on the Upriver Lakes. Today, 12 lake sturgeon were harvested from the Upriver Lakes (0 juvenile female, 1 adult female, and 11 male). For the season, the Upriver Lakes harvested 33 juvenile females, 74 adult females, and 178 males, for a total of 285 fish.
Click here to view the full Day 8 Harvest Report.
This year’s Upriver season lasted 8 days compared to 4 in 2022. Red worm abundance was up on the Upriver Lakes this year, but harvest was more effected by ice conditions than anything else. Access points near Indian Point made it difficult to access the lake. As a result, only one fish has been registered at the Indian Point registration station since Tuesday. The largest fish from the Upriver lakes was a 162.6 lbs., 76.1-inch female from Lake Poygan.
This year, 9,474 people applied for a tag or purchased a preference point for the Upriver Lakes. A minimum of 8 points were necessary to be drawn for a tag. With 285 fish harvested Upriver this spearing season, there was just over a 50% success rate for spearers with Upriver tags.
Today’s largest fish was a 154.0 lbs., 79.5 inch, F2 female speared on Lake Winnebago by Michael Eggers. As an F2, this female is preparing to spawn, but probably would not have spawned until the spring of 2024. When spawning, females can hold 50,000-700,000 eggs. This can be almost 30 additional pounds. At 154 pounds with only the beginning stages of eggs, we can only imagine how big this female would have weighed next year when she would have been ready to spawn.
We are halfway through the season. Even with all the weird weather, it has been a success season so far. Congrats to all successful spearers! Continue to be safe if you are headed back out tomorrow. |
