Published: March 2, 2016
Sturgeon numbers down in ’16
Preliminary numbers released by DNR
By NICHOLAS DETTMANN
Daily News
Fish biologists were worried about water clarity heading
into this season’s sturgeon spearing season, which wrapped up Sunday.
According to preliminary data released Sunday by the
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, the harvest was almost 80 percent
below the 2015 harvest on Lake Winnebago.
There were 396 fish harvested on Lake Winnebago and 307 from
the Upriver Lakes. The 396 from Lake Winnebago is 55th all-time, according to
DNR state records. Last season, 1,870 sturgeon were harvested on Lake Winnebago
— sixth most all-time.
“Overall, I think that this season went as we would have
predicted,” said Ryan Koenigs, DNR senior fisheries biologist in Oshkosh.
“Water clarity conditions were not ideal and I was predicting a 16-day season
on Lake Winnebago.”
“I think that this season was a success given the
conditions,” he added.
The largest fish speared was 77 inches long and 147.9 pounds
at Indian Point. There were 19 fish harvested that weighed at least 100 pounds
— 11 on Upriver Lakes and eight on Lake Winnebago.
In the days before the season started Feb. 13, several spots
on Lake Winnebago reported water clarity at about 7 feet. With spots of the
lake as deep as 15-20 feet and with the sturgeon being a bottom-dwelling fish,
the chance of repeating the successful 2015 season was slim.
Through six days of the season, less than 15 percent of the
harvest cap was captured by spearers.
On Sunday, the last day of the season, eight sturgeon were
speared — all on Lake Winnebago.
The adult female cap on the Upriver Lakes of the Winnebago
system was met. Otherwise, all other harvests fell way short of the cap.
This year, the harvest was raised for a second straight
year. At this point, it’s too early to tell what that’ll mean for next season.
“Luckily we did get some cold weather to make ice, but then
the water was extremely dirty at time of ice formation,” Koenigs said.
He added some spearers reported they couldn’t see the bottom
of the ice.
Water clarity was reported to be at best 9 to 10 feet on
Lake Winnebago and 7 feet on the Upriver Lakes, according to Koenigs.
A record 13,674 licenses were sold for the 2016 sturgeon
spearing season on the Winnebago System (13,190 licenses for Lake Winnebago and
484 licenses for Upriver Lakes). License sales were a 4.1 percent increase from
the 2015 season and a 15.6 percent increase from 2014.
“The overall increase in effort is attributable to the
overall spearing success of the last two spearing seasons where spearers
benefited from strong ice conditions and clear water,” Koenigs said.
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