2/22/23 Sturgeon Report Day 11
22 February 2023 Sports
Tuesday was another nice day on the ice with sunshine and cold weather. On Lake Winnebago, 21 fish were harvested with three juvenile females, nine adult females and nine males. This makes 1,298 lake sturgeon harvested for the entire Winnebago system so far this season. The Pipe registration station continues to have the highest daily harvest, with 11 fish and 354 fish for the season. One of the nine fish was the 90.7 lbs., 77.9-inch F1 female speared by Russel Gulig.
Click here to view the full Day 11 Harvest Report.
The DNR biologists report that many lake sturgeon stomachs are full of Gizzard Shad. This small, oily forage fish has a drastic boom and bust population cycle in Lake Winnebago. Gizzard Shad are not native to Lake Winnebago and do not tolerate the freezing winters well. When Gizzard Shad populations are plentiful, they prove to be a good food source for the Lake Sturgeon. Gizzard Shad population during the Winnebago trawl assessment saw a small uptick in densities but nothing compared to previous boom years. Yet both spearers and biologists report good numbers of shad within sturgeon stomachs, particularly in the southern portion of the lake. Years with good Gizzard Shad populations correlate with years when Lake Sturgeon have increased weights due to the fat deposits from this fatty forage source. It will be interesting to see what the warmer weather this winter does for the Gizzard Shad populations in Lake Winnebago and if it influences the number of large, heavy lake sturgeon we see next spearing season.
Congrats again to all our spearers. With the wintery weather expected for the next few days, please be safe on the roads as you travel to Lake Winnebago and while out on the ice.
Pictured: Russel Gulig registering his 90.7 lbs., 77.9,” F1 female at the Pipe registration station. / Photo Credit: Wisconsin DNR
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