Sturgeon season Day 3 features third-largest catch since 1941 
The overall harvest total for Day 3 of the Wisconsin sturgeon spearing season on the Winnebago Lakes System was 174 on Monday, Feb. 14 in Oshkosh, state wildlife officials said.
The total included nine fish 100 pounds or greater (eight from Lake Winnebago and one from the Upriver Lakes), including the
third-largest ever registered, according to Ron Bruch, the Department of Natural Resources' sturgeon biologist.
Monday's largest fish was a 185-pound, 80.2-inch female registered by Josh Genske of Sheboygan at the Calumet Harbor Station.
"We have had a sturgeon spearing season on Lake Winnebago since 1932, with the first season implemented as part of an
economic stimulus bill passed by the Wisconsin State Legislature during the Great Depression," Bruch said in a news release.
"We only have harvest records though that go back to 1941."
Bruch said seven of the top 10 largest sturgeon seen in the fishery since 1941 have been registered in the past three years,
including two this year.
Jeffery Nozar's 172.7-pound fish speared Saturday, Feb. 12 (opening day) is the fifth-largest registered, trailing the 180-pounder registered by Elroy Schroeder in 1953 which stood as the Winnebago spear record from 1953 to 2004.
"Given the changing travel conditions on Lake Winnebago at this point of the 2011 season due to the warm weather, and the
forecast for colder weather early next week, it appears spearers will have many more days, possibly a full 16 days this year,
to add to the top 10 list," Bruch said.
Bruch said the big fish are due to the harvest management program the DNR and the Winnebago Citizens Sturgeon Advisory
Committee developed and put in place between 1993 and 2004 to increase the number of large fish and a gradual influx of more
fish older than 70 to 80 years over the past 15 years.
"High illegal and legal harvests during the 1930s through 1950s literally created a "hole" in the Winnebago System sturgeon
population. So many fish (both juveniles and young adults) were removed from the population back then that the impact was
felt for decades," Bruch said, explaining. "We are finally on the back side of that "hole"; and the timing couldn't have been
more perfect. The big fish we see now began growing into the "big fish" category (100 lbs or more) just at the time when our
new regulations were put in place to provide greater protection to them -- resulting in the impressive numbers of big fish in
an expanded population overall of lake sturgeon we currently have in the Winnebago System.
"The final good news is the harvest cap system we have in place as part of our current regulation system protects these fish
and the entire population from being overharsted. So what we see in the harvest for lake sturgeon size structure, including
the big fish, is a reflection of what is in the overall population.
"These are the good old days."
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