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2/14/24 Sturgeon Report Day Four

14 February 2024 Sports


From the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources:

Show in the photo: Josh Roloff celebrating his successful day with his dad, Kory Roloff, registering his 68.4-inch, 85.1-pound, F1 female at the Southwest registration station.

Feb. 13, 2024 Harvest Update

With stronger winds, ice on both the Upriver Lakes and Lake Winnebago continues to change. Please do not forget to reach out to your local spearing groups and bait & tackle shops for the most up-to-date ice conditions. 

Two juvenile females, 7 adult females and 9 males were harvested today on Lake Winnebago. Twelve of the 18 lake sturgeon harvested from Lake Winnebago came from the Southwest registration station. Today’s biggest fish came from the Southwest registration station. It was a 85.1-pound, 68.4-inch, F1 female speared by Josh Roloff. 

Harvest continues to be slow on the Upriver Lakes with 1 juvenile female, 1 adult female, and 4 males harvested today. 

View the full details in today’s harvest report.

We continue to learn new information about lake sturgeon, their biology and their behavior even during the spearing season. Every lake sturgeon has an interesting story to tell; some stories the DNR have tracked, while other fish keep their lives a secret. 

Today, one of the harvested fish is one we’ve been tracking since it hatched in 2002. This lake sturgeon was raised in a hatchery and stocked in 2003. In 2009, this fish was captured in the commercial seine in Lake Butte des Morts.

Over ten years later, while spearing on Lake Butte des Morts, Shane Braun was lucky enough to spear this fish (a 21.1-pound, 52.1-inch, FV female).

When it comes to younger lake sturgeon such as this, we are still learning about their behaviors and needs. Knowing that this particular individual was consistently found in Lake Butte des Morts gives us more insight into their life history. This gives us just one more piece to the puzzle in lake sturgeon life history. This was a very cool fish – congrats Shane!

The Stockbridge, Quinney, Neenah and Poygan registration stations will continue to be closed today. 


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