Day 5 Sturgeon Report

DNR Sturgeon Biologist Ryan Koenigs writes:


Today marks the conclusion of the 5th day of the 2017 sturgeon spear fishery on the Winnebago System.  There were 32 fish harvested from Lake Winnebago and 18 from the Upriver Lakes today.  We are currently at 67% of both the adult female and male harvest caps and would need a harvest of either 22 adult females or 54 males to reach the 90% trigger that would close the fishery the next day.  With the decrease in harvest each day, I am expecting the Upriver Lakes fishery to go well into this weekend.  

 

Five more fish 100 pounds or larger were harvested today, all of which were from the Upriver Lakes. After the first 5 days of the fishery 7.9% of the Lake Winnebago harvest have been fish 100 pounds or larger, compared to 2.7% of the Upriver Lakes harvest.  The largest fish harvested today was registered at Quinney by Daniel Reindl of New London (118.2 pounds and 75.2”).  I don’t have a photo of Daniel’s fish, but we did get a picture of Jonathan Schneider’s 115.2 pound, 68.5” sturgeon that was registered at Payne’s Point.