Sturgeon spearing season starts next week

Are you ready? The 2023 Winnebago System sturgeon spearing season will kick off on Feb. 11 and will run until Feb. 26 or until harvest caps have been reached.

Several things can affect how long the season lasts, including:

• The Winnebago System’s chironomid population can impact sturgeon distribution around the lakes. View this year’s chironomid summary.
• The clarity of the water. Typically, the clearer the water, the shorter the season is. Unfortunately, warm weather has prevented staff from getting on the ice to conduct the water clarity assessment. Hopefully, the deep freeze this week will give staff an opportunity to safely get on the ice. As soon as the assessment has been completed, it will be posted to the Winnebago System sturgeon spearing webpage.

Want to know what the current adult lake sturgeon population looks like? Take a look at the recently published 2022 Sturgeon Stock Assessment.