Daily Update: 2020 Winnebago System Sturgeon Spearing Season

Daily Recap and Highlights

There were 27 lake sturgeon harvested on day 6 of the 2020 sturgeon spear fishery on the Winnebago System. Today’s harvest of 17 fish from Lake Winnebago brings the season total to 143 fish, while the 10 fish taken from the Upriver Lakes brings the season total to 187. Registration numbers have been picking up at Waverly Beach in recent days. In fact, almost half of the fish harvested from Lake Winnebago today were registered at our Waverly Beach registration station. A breakdown of the registration numbers for each station can be viewed through the following link:

Day 6 Harvest Report.pdf

The largest fish in today’s harvest was 119.5 pounds, 73.0 inches and registered at Wendt’s by Ronald Goldaspske. The largest fish from the Upriver Lakes was 105.8 pounds, 69.6 inches and registered at Critter’s by Tonya Winkelman.

Tonya Winkelman registered this 105.9 pound, 73.6 inch lake sturgeon at Critter’s on 2/13/2020!

Today’s Vignette: “The 1970 Sturgeon Spearing Season”

We highlight the 1970 sturgeon spearing season in today’s vignette. Some notables from the season include:

• The cost of a license was $2.50 and 4,849 licenses were sold.
• The season bag limit was 1 fish per person with a 40 inch minimum length limit.
• The spearing season lasted 23 days from February 7 – March 1, 1970.
• There was a total harvest of 692 fish.
• The average fish measured 53 inches and weighed 40 pounds.

While looking through the file from the 1970 spearing season, I came across a registration guide that was distributed to the various registration stations around Lake Winnebago. That document can be viewed through the following link:

1970 Sturgeon Regisgtration Guide.pdf