Feb. 26, 2023 Harvest Update

This is it; today wrapped up the 2023 sturgeon spearing season! The last day continued to prove to be exciting on Lake Winnebago with cold weather and sunshine. On this final day of the season, 53 Lake Sturgeon were harvested (4 juvenile females, 29 adult females and 20 males). Josh Ausloos speared the final “biggest fish of the day” for this season, a 106.9 pound, 75.4 inch, F1 female registered at the Pipe registration station.

View the full details in today’s harvest report.

This season was one for the books, with a variety of weather patterns packed into a short 16 days: warm weather, rain and a winter storm. It has not made it the easiest season for spearers to navigate. On opening weekend, only about 3,000 ice shanties were counted. This is half of what was counted in 2022. But for those that found safe ice, the fish were there and seemed to be plentiful. For the season, 1,405 fish were harvested on the entire Winnebago system (155 juvenile females, 599 adult females and 651 males). For comparison, 1,519 fish were harvested in 2022 when ice conditions were ideal.

The southeast corner of Lake Winnebago saw the highest harvest for the season. The Pipe registration station took the lead in number of fish registered opening weekend with 124 fish and has consistently had the highest registration numbers throughout the season with final count of 399 fish. The Southwest Winnebago and Stockbridge registration stations both had the next most fish registered at just about 200 fish each.

There were plenty of big fish to see this season, with 46 fish over 100 pounds for the season (9 fish from the Upriver Lakes and 37 fish from Lake Winnebago). The largest fish this season was a 177.3 pound, 79.9 inch, F4 female that was speared on Lake Winnebago and registered at the Southwest Winnebago registration station.

We hope every spearer had a great season. It was great seeing everyone back at the regular registration stations; we enjoyed being able to celebrate with you and hear your spearing stories.

Congrats to everyone who successfully speared a fish. We can’t wait to see everyone out on the ice next year.

Season Photos Needed

The DNR is looking for spearers to submit photos that help tell a story through a photo submission form. Photos could be of spearers with their catch, cutting in, shanty life, scenic views observed during the season or anything else that captures the spearing tradition.

Please make sure the photos are age appropriate. Select photos will be used for future DNR outreach efforts.