Sturgeon Report – 2-24-16

Here’s today’s Sturgeon update presented by Air Tech Heating..
This is from Ryan Koenigs of the Wisconsin DNR
Winnebago System Sturgeon Spearing Enthusiasts:
 
We are now ¾ of the way through the 2016 sturgeon spearing season, meaning that spearers only have 4 more days to try and harvest a fish this season.  Today’s harvest of 10 fish marks a slight increase over yesterday, with Stockbridge Harbor continuing to lead the pack for registration numbers.  Today’s largest fish (65.2”; 62.1 pounds) was registered by Travis Trepanier at Wendt’s.  
   
This week’s harvest numbers have been pretty  low, mostly as a result of a significant reduction in effort.  There just aren’t that many people still spearing and that’s evident by the low number of shanties on the lake.  However, there are still some “die-hards” out there and they are having some success.  I wanted to recognize some of these dedicated spearers in today’s report.  To accomplish this, I asked that stations take a photo of every spearer with their fish, while also asking three general questions: 1) how many days have you speared this season, 2) how many seasons have you been spearing, and 3) how many fish have you speared in your career.  I was pretty confident that most of these folks had invested a great deal of time in this season already, and that their perseverance finally paid off today.  I also figured that most of these folks had defied the odds of sturgeon spearing and had more luck than the average license holder, if for no other reason than the duration of time they spend on the ice.  For the most part my assumptions were right.  Gloria Groeschel waited the fewest days for her fish (7), but she had been sitting with family members on the Upriver Lakes prior to starting on Lake Winnebago last week.  Further, both Kevin Rach and Gary Dollevoet had been spearing every day this season.  Also, the majority of these spearers were having better luck than the 1 in 8 years (12% annual success rate) that the “average” spearer should harvest fish.  I have included the story of 8 of the 10 successful spearers from today in the attached Power Point.  Congratulations to these die-hard sturgeon spearers, your perseverance paid off and I would like to recognize you in today’s edition of the “Perseverance Awards!”  
 
Good luck during the remaining 4 days of the sturgeon spearing season!