Bumper crop awaits sturgeon spearersBy Paul Smith, Outdoors Editor, JSOnline
Jan. 20, 2010The people of Wisconsin have always had close ties to the state's fish and wildlife.
Around here, the outdoors life is not just sport; it's woven into our culture and commerce, too.
How deeply? In one of the most extreme examples, the state leveraged one of its unique natural resources into a dose of economic relief.
The year was 1931 and the nation was suffering through the Great Depression. With many state residents out of work, legislators debated ways to allow Wisconsinites to put more food on the table.
Thoughts of citizens and politicians from the Lake Winnebago region naturally turned to the sturgeon.
Upon the suggestion of the Twin City Sportsmen's Club in Neenah, state Sen. Merritt White of Winneconne drafted a bill to open sturgeon to a fall hook-and-line season; soon it was amended to include a two-month winter spearing season through the ice.
Though the legislation was not without controversy - sturgeon had been protected by a statewide harvest moratorium since 1915 - it was signed into law in June 1931.
Wisconsin has had a sturgeon harvest season each year since 1932. And thanks to careful, science-based management and support from area conservation groups, the Winnebago system today has one of the largest populations of lake sturgeon in the world.
Prospects are very good for spearers during the 2010 Winnebago-system sturgeon season, said Ron Bruch, chief sturgeon biologist for the Department of Natural Resources.
"I'm very glad to report that our sturgeon population and spear fishery are just as robust now as they were when I started," said Bruch, now in his 19th year as sturgeon manager on the system. "In fact, the resurgence of 150-plus pound fish in the population over the last 10 years adds a super-trophy element to the fishery that spearers haven't seen since the 1950s."
The 2010 season will run Feb. 13-28 unless harvest caps are reached and a season closure is triggered. Spearing is permitted on Lake Winnebago and the Upriver Lakes of Buttes des Morts, Poygan and Winneconne.
The DNR has set Winnebago-system harvest caps at 350 juvenile females, 740 adult females and 1,000 males.
The 2009 season was notable for good ice cover, fair visibility and a near-record number of 100-plus pound fish; the season ran eight days before being closed when the adult female limit was reached.
Of the 1,510 sturgeon speared, 34 weighed at least 100 pounds. A 100-pound sturgeon is 65 to 80 years old, said Bruch.
Amy Vanbeek of Menasha speared the heaviest sturgeon last year, a 169-pound, 81-inch fish.
Bruch said that spearing more large sturgeon is due in part to regulations put in place over the past 20 years.
The heaviest sturgeon on record was a 188-pounder speared in 2004 by Dave Piechowski of Redgranite. Piechowki's fish stretched the tape 79.5 inches.
The longest was a 90-inch, 118-pound fish (probably a female that had spawned the previous spring) harvested in 1951.
Bruch said because of the robustness of the lake's sturgeon stock, the system-wide harvest cap on adult females was raised to 740 this season, nearly twice the limit when harvest caps were instituted in 1997.
According to DNR figures, 10,240 sturgeon spearing licenses were sold last year, up 9% from 2008 and 17% from 2007.
Bruch said DNR crews handle fish every year in population assessments that are in the 200-pound range.
"I think it's only a matter of time before the record is broken," said Bruch.
It's hard to quantify how much economic relief the 1931 law provided. Certainly some families ate better because of it.
And clearly it added a rich chapter to the story of the sturgeon in Wisconsin, a fish of the people if ever there were one.
Winnebago death: A worker on a Lake Winnebago fisheries project died Tuesday when his rock-laden truck broke through the ice about three miles east of Oshkosh.
Authorities identified the man as Todd M. Rupert, 39, of Van Dyne.
Rupert was dumping rock as part of a reef construction project funded by Walleyes For Tomorrow, according to Mike Arrowood of Fond du Lac, board chairman of the conservation club.
Neenah-Menasha Fire Rescue, the Winnebago County Sheriff's Department dive team and Oshkosh Fire Department personnel responded to the scene; Rupert was recovered after about an hour under water and transported by helicopter to Theda Clark Medical Center in Neenah, where he was pronounced dead.
The future of this year's projects, and perhaps any like it in years to come, was in doubt Tuesday afternoon.
"This is shut down," said Arrowood, the shock of the accident evident in his voice. "I don't know when or if we'll start up again."
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