Ice Condition Update
Lake Winnebago from Firelane 8 on 01.29.2012
Less than two weeks until the 2012 sturgeon spearing season! I stopped by Waverly Beach and Firelane 8 on Sunday afternoon to check out the lake and see if there was any action, but I didn’t find too much by the time I got there. There were a few four-wheelers here and there, vehicles driving along the shoreline, and a couple shacks out on the lake. I imagine it will be a lot busier next weekend as everyone prepares for the spearing season.
We’ve had a few cold days, but the big question still remains: will there be enough ice for sturgeon spearing? I’ve heard a lot of different things and there are concerns about ice shoves, rough ice, open water, and of course thin ice. According to a recent articles on WisconsinOutdoorFun.com and TheNorthwestern.com, the ice thickness varies around the lakes. It’s still not safe to travel in many places on the ice with larger vehicles, but will hopefully be safe enough to travel with all-terrain vehicles and snowmobiles by the opening day of the spearing season. I’ve also been watching comments on a few of the sturgeon spearing Facebook groups (Winnebago Fishing, Sturgeon Spearing, Sturgeon for Tomorrow, Inc.) and many are finding 12″ of ice in some spots, but then 5″ or more in other areas. Please be safe and extremely cautious on the ice! For more info, read “Cold snap could save sturgeon spearing season” on WisconsinOutdoorFun.com and also see today’s article “Ice on Lake Winnebago thick enough for fisheree, sturgeon season” at The Northwestern online. Despite the questionable ice conditions, the season will go on and a record number of spears (12,680) purchased licenses for the 2012 season! Please leave a comment if you have any info about the ice condition in your area!
Don’t forget to join your local Sturgeon for Tomorrow chapter for the annual banquet! The SFT Northern Half Chapter will hold its banquet at the Darboy Club on February 4th. Call Wayne Hoelzel at 920.725.1206 for tickets.
I will try to get more info and photos of the lake up this week, so stay tuned!
30 Days To Go!
First off, I’m excited to announce that the Winnebago Lake Sturgeon blog is two years old today! I have had so much fun over the past 2+ years documenting spearing and am so happy that the 2012 season is almost here! Did everyone enjoy what looks to be the last 50 degree day today?! I have enjoyed the warmer weather, but it’s obviously not the greatest for winter sports including sturgeon spearing. We’ve questioned whether or not the lakes would freeze over in the past, but it has always worked out so I’ll give it a couple more weeks before I start to worry. Temperatures should drop quickly over the next week and I will keep you posted on the ice condition as I learn more. Although it’s not safe to be out on the ice yet, the ice on the north end of Lake Winnebago is looking alright so far. I heard there are large ice shoves near the Harbor Bar on the east side of the lake in Chilton, so it will be interesting to see what happens. If you’d like to share an update, please drop me an email at winnebagosturgeon@gmail.com, leave a comment on the blog, or post to the Winnebago Lake Sturgeon Facebook page!
I’ve also received questions concerning sturgeon spearing guide services. Is anyone familiar with local guides? If so, leave a comment or send some info via email and I will be sure to post it! Also feel free to contact me if you know of any equipment for sale, shacks for rent, etc. I want to share as much info as I can find with the spearing community!
If you haven’t done so already, get your tickets for your local SFT banquet - 2012 Events/Sturgeon for Tomorrow Banquets:
January 14, 2012: SFT Southwest Chapter Banquet at the Holiday Inn in Fond du Lac. Call Jim Patt at 920-922-7136 for tickets.
January 28, 2012: SFT Main Chapter Banquet at the Millhome Supper Club in Kiel. Call David Vogds at 920-921-3701 for tickets.
February 4, 2012: SFT Northern Half Chapter Banquet at the Darboy Club in Darboy. Call Wayne Hoelzel at 920.725.1206 for tickets.
March 17, 2012: SFT West Central Chapter Banquet at the Oshkosh Convention Center in Oshkosh. Call Dick Braasch at 920.231.4708.
September 15, 2012: SFT Upper Lakes Chapter Banquet at the Hahn-A-Lula in Fremont. Call Matt Woods at 920.582.0113 for tickets.
And lastly is an update from Ron Bruch himself (The following update has been posted with permission from Ron Bruch and the Wisconsin DNR. This website is not affiliated with the DNR, Sturgeon for Tomorrow, or any other organization.):
“Here are a few updates and other information you may be interested in…………..
Sturgeon Spearing 2012
The 2012 sturgeon spearing season is around the corner (only 30 days away!) and the biggest question spearers are asking at this point is will we have adequate ice. Given the forecast for very cold weather coming in over the next ten days or so, we can all still be optimistic. Regardless though what kind of ice we end up with, the ice is never completely safe. I have a great respect for Winnebago sturgeon spearers ability read ice, but you can never be too careful.
The 2012 Winnebago Sturgeon Spearing Regulations are attached for your reading pleasure. We are also distributing hard copies to the major DNR license vendors around the lake system; and I will be bringing copies with me to the upcoming Sturgeon for Tomorrow banquets in Fond du Lac this Sat Jan 14, in Kiel Jan 28, and in Darboy Feb 4. (If you haven’t already got your tickets contact SFT – details in the reg pamphlet page 12).
I’ve also attached a Spearing Shanty Rental List. I am certain there are more rental places out there so if you would like me to add your name to the list, please send me your contact information and where you rent shanties (Winnebago and/or Upriver Lakes).
Winnebago Fisheries Public Meetings January 24 & 25
Kendall Kamke, Ryan Koenigs, and I, along with other Oshkosh Fisheries staff, will be conducting two general public meetings Tuesday January 24 in Winneconne, and Wednesday January 25 at Fisherman’s Road Fishing Club Headquarters (SE Shore of Lake Winnebago). Details and more information is in the attached flyer.
The purpose of the meetings is to provide updates and status reports on the sturgeon, walleye, perch, sauger, and other fisheries on the Winnebago System; as well as to discuss restoring spawning and resident lake sturgeon in the Wolf River in the Menominee Reservation above Shawano.
Looking forward to seeing you at an SFT Banquet or one of our meetings. I’ll be sending out a more in-depth pre-spearing season news release in a couple of weeks.
Ronald M. Bruch, PhD
Upper Fox-Wolf Fisheries Work Unit Supervisor, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources”
2012 Sturgeon Spearing Regulations
With 35 days to go until the 2012 sturgeon spearing season, the 2012 Sturgeon Spearing Regulations are here!
Click here to download the new regulations
According to Ron Bruch, there aren’t many changes this year although there will be an increase in the juvenile female and adult female harvest caps because of the continuous increase in the lake sturgeon population.
Stay tuned for more updates, info, and photos as the season gets closer!
2012 Sturgeon Spearing Season Opens in 72 days!
In a little over 2 months, 12,680 sturgeon spearers will head out on Lake Winnebago and the Upriver Lakes for the 2012 sturgeon spearing season! It seems so far away right now, but it will come up incredibly quickly. Soon enough there will be snow on the ground and a a thick layer of ice on the lakes. With the season coming up soon, I plan on updating this site with info, photos, and more so check back often! I want to get a head start on photographing this year as there is just too much to cover during the season. Check out Ron Bruch’s latest report below (The following update has been posted with permission from Ron Bruch and the Wisconsin DNR. This website is not affiliated with the DNR, Sturgeon for Tomorrow, or any other organization.):
“Dear Winnebago Sturgeon Enthusiasts,
Hope you all had a great deer season and enjoyable Thanksgiving holiday. Our Ashland County deer camp didn’t harvest any deer, but we still had a great time. Thanksgiving with family couldn’t have been better. I wanted to get out a few sturgeon items to you before we get into our pre and post-Christmas/New Years holiday crunch preparing for the 2012 Winnebago sturgeon spearing season:
Sturgeon Shanty Rentals
We get numerous calls every year from people interested in renting a spearing shanty on lake Winnebago and the Upriver lakes. I have an old list of shanty rental contacts, but it is quite old and needs updating. If you or someone you know rents shanties for the spearing season on Lake Winnebago and/or the Upriver Lakes, please get your contact information to me and I will compile a new list and get it out there for people to refer to.
Sturgeon License Sales for 2012 Season
Our post October 31 license sales for the upcoming 2012 spearing season on Lake Winnebago and the Upriver Lakes were:
We will likely sell a few 14 year old licenses yet before the season begins, and maybe 1 or 2 military on leave licenses, but even without these the total of 12680 is a 2.1% increase over 2011 license sales and a 48.6% increase sine 2007. For the 2012 Upriver Lakes season 4597 people applied for a tag in the lottery (up from 4144 in 2011) and we authorized the purchase of 500 licenses selling a record 498.
Harvest Caps for 2012 Sturgeon Spearing Season
Surveys over the last 5 years indicate a consistent increase in the adult lake sturgeon stock which justified a modest increase in the juvenile and adult female harvest caps. At the same time, exploitation rates have consistently been held at or below the target limit of 5%.
Population densities and exploitation rates are illustrated in the figures below:
In light of the current population status the following harvest caps have been set for the 2012 spearing season (JF=Juvenile Females; AF=Adult Females; M=Males):
Public Meetings to Discuss Winnebago System Sturgeon and Walleye Management
We (DNR) will be hosting some public meetings in late January 2012 around the Winnebago System to review and discuss the sturgeon and walleye management program on the system and answer questions the public may have about other fisheries on the system as well. We will send out more information once we have set time and places for the meetings. Key topics will be:
Sturgeon management including how we assess the population and fishery; population and harvest trends; discuss our ongoing joint efforts with the Menominee Tribe to re-establish sturgeon in the Wolf River and lakes on the Menominee Reservation; sturgeon migration/telemetry study results; status of sturgeon stocking efforts on the upper Fox River; Walleye management including how we assess the Winnebago System walleye population and fishery; population and harvest trends; initial results from 3 year walleye migration/telemetry study; results from 2011 walleye electroshocking study; updating of the Winnebago Walleye Management Plan; Status/information on other Winnebago fisheries: perch, sauger, etc.
Stay tuned – more info to come on these meetings and the upcoming sturgeon season…………..
I hope to have the 2012 Sturgeon Spearing Regulation Pamphlet out by Christmas.
Ronald M. Bruch, PhD
Upper Fox-Wolf Fisheries Work Unit Supervisor, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources”
Purchase your sturgeon spearing license by Oct. 31st!
Sturgeon spearers! It’s time to purchase your 2012 sturgeon spearing license! The 2012 season will begin on February 11, 2012 and licenses are $20 for residents and $65 for non-residents. Licenses are required for sturgeon spearing on both Lake Winnebago and the Upriver Lakes. Purchase here online, call 1-877-WI-LICENSE (1-877-945-4236), stop by a license sales location or DNR service center.
Read Ron Bruch’s reminder below ( The following update has been posted with permission from Ron Bruch and the Wisconsin DNR):
“Dear Winnebago Sturgeon Spearing Enthusiasts:
You have only 17 days left to purchase your 2012 Winnebago or Upriver Lakes sturgeon spearing license.
You can not purchase your 2012 spearing license after Oct 31 – Halloween. SO – if you haven’t purchased it by then – you’d better be scared!
As of today Oct 14 at 10 AM our sales were at:
Resident Lake Winnebago: 5944
Non-Resident Lake Winnebago: 339
Resident Upriver Lakes: 77
Non-Resident Upriver lakes: 9
We have a long ways to go in the next 17 days in sales to get to where we are normally by Nov 1, although typically most sturgeon spearers seem to wait until the last minute to buy their license (like me – I just bought mine a few minutes ago – last year Paul Muche and I, and a few others, missed the deadline).
Sales of Lake Winnebago spearing licenses are not limited. For the 2012 season we had 4597 applicants for the Upriver Lakes lottery and, as in previous years since the lottery began in 2007, we authorized 500 individuals to purchase an URL spearing license for 2012. You can not buy a license for both.
Also when you buy your license make sure you ask for a Sturgeon Spearing License. We have had some problems with individuals purchasing a hook & line license for sturgeon in the past, thinking they were purchasing a spearing license. The hook & line license is no good on the Winnebago System, and if you realize your mistake after Oct 31, you’re out of luck.
The 2012 season should be another great year – the sturgeon population is remaining robust and new population estimates support another increase in harvest caps for the 2012 season. I am meeting with the Winnebago Citizens Sturgeon Advisory Committee on October 22 to discuss harvest caps for 2012 and some other current sturgeon spearing issues.
Last year (for the 2011 season) our final sales were:
Resident Lake Winnebago: 11714
Non-Resident Lake Winnebago: 218
Lake Winnebago 14 year old: 1
Resident Upriver Lakes: 483
Non-Resident Upriver Lakes: 7
Hope you are having a great fall.
Ronald M. Bruch, PhD
Upper Fox-Wolf Fisheries Work Unit Supervisor, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources”
Shanties at the Trout Musuem of Art in Appleton
I’m excited to announce that my print, “Sturgeon Spearing Shanties, Lake Winnebago”, will be hanging on the walls of the Trout Museum of Art in downtown Appleton! This print measures 44″ x 54″ and depicts 143 shanties captured during the 2010 season of sturgeon spearing. The Members’ Biennial Exhibition opens this Friday, July 15 so stop by for the opening reception from 6:00pm-9:00pm. The show will be on display July 15-September 2. Please stop by to support the museum as well as local artists! For more information, visit www.troutmuseum.org. Admission is free for members and children age 10 and under, $6 for adults, and $4 for students and seniors. The gallery is located at 111 W. College Avenue in Appleton and is open Tuesday-Saturday from 10:00am-4:00pm and Sundays from 12:00pm-4:00pm (closed Mondays).
This update has been posted with permission from Ron Bruch and the Wisconsin DNR:
“The 2011 Wolf River sturgeon spawning run looks like it finally may be in the books. Last night there were still a fair number of sturgeon on the Shawano camera, along with a new fish guest star – gizzard shad. Attached is a recorded video snippet from the camera courtesy of the Wolf River cam folks that shows adult gizzard moving up river to spawn along side the remaining lake sturgeon: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/14663325. These are adult (probably 2 or 3 year old) gizzard shad. Most of the shad people see are less than 8-10 inches, but they can get quite large (up to 18 inches or longer) as adults. We have had good hatches of shad the last few years which increases the chances of getting good numbers of these large 2-3 year old adults in the system. They are making their spawning run. They spawn optimally at water temps in the low 60′s or higher, but can start spawning at temps in the 50s. The river is now at about 60 degrees after the warm weather this week.
This morning you can see a sturgeon now and then on the Shawano cam, but the field of view is pretty much completely filled by carp, the next fish in line to begin its spawning activity (and occasionally a smallmouth bass, sucker, and a gizzard shad) http://wolfrivercam.com/Shawano%20Dam.html. The carp also undoubtedly are foraging on the sturgeon eggs which were laid at the Shawano spawning site. As I mentioned in an earlier e-mail this may not be bad as egg predators keeping the rocks clean likely helps promote good water flow and incubation conditions for the lake sturgeon eggs down in the interstitial spaces in the rocks. Male lake sturgeon will also consume large quantities of the sturgeon eggs they only hours earlier helped fertilize.
Back to gizzard shad – the shad are a very important part of the lake sturgeon success story on the Winnebago System over the last 20 years. We are not sure if shad are native to the Winnebago System or not. We have capture records of shad within the Winnebago System going back more than 50 years, but they were never very abundant until the late 1980s and early 1990s. A series of dry hot summers and warm winters in the mid to late 1980s was followed by an explosion of gizzard shad in the Winnebago System as well as throughout the Great Lakes region. Most of our important fish predators especially walleye and northern pike made shad a large part of their diet which increased growth rates, promoted earlier maturation, and overall brought the walleye fishery back from the low point it was at in the early 1990s following year class failures for most of the 1980s. The presence of shad made the fishing more difficult on the Winnebago System for walleye and northern pike in years when the shad hatch was large. Alternatively, in the years when the shad hatch was low, fishing was fantastic all summer for walleye and all winter for northern pike.
Shad – sturgeon connection: Gizzard shad experience a winter die off each year, especially here in Wisconsin which is at the northern edge of the species’ range. The dead and dying shad are perfect fodder for foraging lake sturgeon in the winter in the Winnebago lakes. During the winter sturgeon spearing season in years of high shad hatches we will often see lake sturgeon at our registration stations that have 2 or more gallons of dead shad in their foreguts. Based on our studies we estimate that sturgeon now get 37% of the carbon they assimilate from eating gizzard shad (49% comes from lake fly larvae, 14% primarily from other aquatic insects that live on the bottom). So although shad may make fat walleye and northern pike less susceptible to bite on your bait in some years, they are critical to sustaining the condition and abundance of lake sturgeon in the Winnebago System, and are part of the reason we currently see the healthy sturgeon and the abundance of trophy size sturgeon in the Winnebago system.
http://www.arkansasstripers.com/gizzard-shad.htm
I’ll be sending a final wrap up with all of the numbers from this year’s Winnebago lake sturgeon spawning assessment as soon as we get the numbers entered and crunched.
Have a great weekend.
Ronald M. Bruch, PhD
Upper Fox-Wolf Fisheries Work Unit Supervisor, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources”
Can you believe it? The sturgeon are still spawning in Shawano so if you haven’t made it out to see them yet this year you haven’t missed your chance! This update has been posted with permission from Ron Bruch and the Wisconsin DNR:
“The lake sturgeon spawning marathon continues at the Shawano spawning site below the paper mill dam – unbelievable! I just checked the Wolf River Cam and the show is still going on http://wolfrivercam.com/Shawano%20Above.html. The warm weather has apparently rolled all of the potential final “runs” of fish into one massive spawning frenzy that is lasting for days on end. An incredible spectacle that is a testimony to the robust lake sturgeon population that inhabits the Winnebago System.
As good as we thought our population of lake sturgeon was coming into the 21st Century, 10 years later, it appears to be even better – not only with the significant increase in super trophy sized fish (>150 lbs) we’ve seen over the last decade, but also just in the estimated sheer numbers of adults in the stock. I’ve attached plots showing the trends in densities of adult male and female lake sturgeon in the Winnebago System along with photos of a 74 inch male and a 74 inch female we captured just a week or so ago. You can see in both plots the downward trend in population size of both sexes in the 1990s following the high exploitation levels we experienced before the harvest cap system was implemented in 1997. Since the early 2000s though you can see a complete turn around to an increasing trend line in the estimated numbers of both sexes. Keep in mind that what we have in the rivers in any given spring during the spawning run is about 25% of the adult females and 75% of the adult males (which translates into having approximately 4000 females and 18000 males making the spawning run in 2011 – no wonder they won’t quit spawning!).
The bottom line is that our harvest management system works quite well providing us the flexibility to match the harvest caps each year with increases (or decreases) in the adult lake sturgeon stock. By keeping our annual spear harvest rate at or below 5% of the harvestable stock, we expect to see the Winnebago lake sturgeon population continue to flourish, and our sturgeon spear fishery continue to be an important part of Wisconsin culture for many years to come.
Ronald M. Bruch, PhD
Upper Fox-Wolf Fisheries Work Unit Supervisor, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources”
Looks like I missed this update–sorry I’m posting it a little late! This update has been posted with permission from Ron Bruch and the Wisconsin DNR:
“Water temperatures continue to rise and more and more lake sturgeon have come in to spawn at the site below the Shawano dam on the Wolf River. The “Shawano Above” camera has been adjusted so you can look right down on the large group of spawning lake sturgeon 24 hours a day. There is a spotlight at this site so you can easily see fish at night on the “Above” cam http://wolfrivercam.com/Shawano%20Above.html, and on the underwater cam as well http://wolfrivercam.com/Shawano%20Dam.html. Looks like this 3rd run at Shawano is definitely the “big one”. I don’t expect this to last to much longer though – in a day or two it could be over.
This is a late spawning run in a season, but not the latest we have on record. In 1979 we had fish still spawning on May 9 and 10 like this year; in 2000 we had a second run on May 16-18; and in 2002 we had fish still spawning on May 18-20 of that year.
I initially addressed a question in an earlier e-mail about the impact of cold water during the runs 3 weeks ago on the incubating eggs and embryos. Fred Binkowski, of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Great Lakes WATER Institute has done research which showed that lake sturgeon eggs incubate and embryos develop better at 59 degrees F (15 C) compared to 50 F (10 C) and 68 F (15 C). Almost all of the spawning prior to this last big run at Shawano took place at water temperatures at or below 50 F (10C) so we undoubtedly had 100s of millions of eggs incubating as sub-optimal temperatures this spring. But then – as I also mentioned in an earlier e-mail, we see 2 or 3 “runs” of sturgeon every year as well; so odds are that almost every year our lake sturgeon stock will conduct at least one of its spawning “runs” at a time that the eggs can incubate and embryos can develop at or close to optimal temperatures. The sturgeon apparently figured this game out a long time ago.
Once the 2.7 mm diameter (1/9th of an inch) eggs are broadcast by the female and fertilized in mid-broadcast by the males, they settle and stick on to the rocky substrate – the luckiest ones settle and stick deep into the interstitial spaces between the rocks so predators can not get at them, and where fungus may be less likely to infect and kill them. Water flow, in addition to optimal temperature, is critical to incubating eggs. Eggs down in the interstitial spaces between the rocks have additional protection from being eaten by predators (suckers, redhorse, male lake sturgeon, carp, and crayfish). The predators though, by consuming eggs on the surface of the rocks (which at some sites can be 2 or more inches thick), may provide a benefit to the eggs down in the rocks by keeping the substrate clean and allowing water to more readily flow through the spaces between the rocks.
After about 10 days or so the sturgeon larvae, with their yolk sac, hatch out (at about 0.5 inches or 12 mm long) and immediately burrow down between the rocks where they stay for another 10 days or so until their yolk sac is used up and to the point when they need to start feeding on their own. At this point they begin moving downstream at night under the cover of darkness to avoid predation and settle on to shallow sand and pea gravel bars 200 yards (~200 meters) to perhaps 5 miles (8 km) or more below the spawning site where they live for their first summer feeding on benthic aquatic insects. At the end of their first summer the young fingerling sturgeon average about 8-10 inches long. Modeling I’ve done estimates that by the end of the growing season after spawning, each spawning adult female produces on average 12 fingerlings from the 500,000 eggs she laid 5 months earlier.
We don’t have a good way to assess how big the hatch was of any particular year in that year. We know how to capture migrating larvae at night; we can capture fingerlings in the river during their first summer; but the young sturgeon are pretty spread out in the river and are very difficult to capture in a consistent enough way for us to set up any kind of index stations to accurately measure year class strength. The best way for us at this time to get an idea of the size of a hatch is to wait until fish from a particular year class are recruited into the spear fishery 10-15 years after they are hatched.
Till my next report……….
Ronald M. Bruch, PhD
Upper Fox-Wolf Fisheries Work Unit Supervisor, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources”
Upper Fox-Wolf Fisheries Work Unit Supervisor, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources”
