Local News
Spearers Hope For Bigger Weekend Numbers
| Day 13 of the 2022 sturgeon spearing season saw another small number of sturgeon speared. On Lake Winnebago, 35 sturgeon were harvested Thursday. The 35 speared sturgeon consisted of three juvenile females, 17 adult females and 15 males. This is the highest harvest since Sunday and is likely attributed to more spearers on the ice as the weekend approaches. Including Thursday, the total fish harvested on Lake Winnebago increased to 969 and the Winnebago System total increased to 1,318. The Blackwolf registration station registered the most fish today with 12 and was closely followed by Grundman Lane with 10. As the last weekend of the 2022 spearing season approaches, it is expected that more spearers will take to the ice and harvest to increase slightly. See the full day 13 harvest report below. View the full details in Thursday’s harvest report here.T Timothy Schoppenhorst speared the largest fish, a 120.6 pounds, 77.7 inches F2 female registered at the Grundman Lane registration station. Several aspects of fisheries management contribute to the successful management of a population. One of these aspects is understanding the age and growth of fish within the population. Having accurate estimates of age and growth plays an important role in understanding the population’s survival, mortality, maturity, etc. For many fish species, methods of estimating age and growth are well-defined. However, for lake sturgeon, methods can be more difficult due to lake sturgeon characteristics of being long-lived and slow-growing. The DNR and the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point recently collaborated on a research project focusing on methods better to estimate the age and growth of lake sturgeon. Read more about sturgeon’s age and growth in today’s vignette. |