Sturgeon Spearing

sure feel bad for all up river tag holders  sucks you have my sympathes (if thats speeled right ) lol

Just curious any rules that say you can't spear out of a boat, in case the season ends up being open water? It's probably never occurred before but if it's not in the rules then who's stopping someone from trying to spear one in a boat during the season?

Agreed. When mother nature throws a curve ball. That's the way it's gonna be and the stugeon win this year. Just like you wouldn't cancel do to poor conditions if the whole system was chocolate milk and you couldn't see a foot. Waushara county lakes are in bad shape foot travel only. The black ice, which is the ice that froze open water during the cold snap is six inches measured on almost all lakes. But just in those areas of the lakes. Now all the lakes also have what I'm just gonna call snow ice in typicallymoon shaped areas of the lakes.Good fishing!
-silverfish

It's in administrative code that the DNR hold a spearing season, they can't decide to close it. It would take legislative action to change anything. ​

Just watch, the season gets canceled and then it gets cold and guys complain they can't go out. 

You take a chance when you apply and hope for the best.Changing anything now would set a dangerous precedent for years when there's a bunch of snow or brutally cold or whatever. Where do you draw the line? There were hundreds of people on Poygan for PoP. The season is 16 days long, conditions opening weekend might be poor but could improve with a couple weeks of cold weather.

Milwaukee tv announced the cancellation of BOB. Any news about spearing?

I don’t spear but we like going to WENDT’s for the festivities.  Hope the ice will be ok!

Update on the USFWS discussion on the sturgeon population in the historic range.  All of the data that was gathered on the historic population has been formatted and returned to the DNR, tribal contacts, states and any others that provided information. No, I don’t know what the data is.  In September of 23, there will be a public comment period.  
  Then the USFWS will review all the information and decide whether to add protections to the population in whole or to pick regions for protection.

Thanx for all the reports and info nihsif! Awesome stuff

last report from DNR

Josh Ausloos speared the final biggest daily sturgeon, a 106.9 lbs. female. / Photo Credit: Wisconsin DNR

---- This season was one for the books, with a variety of weather patterns packed into a short 16 days: warm weather, rain and a winter storm. It has not made it the easiest season for spearers to navigate. On opening weekend, only about 3,000 ice shanties were counted. This is half of what was counted in 2022. But for those that found safe ice, the fish were there and seemed to be plentiful. For the season, 1,405 fish were harvested on the entire Winnebago system (155 juvenile females, 599 adult females and 651 males). For comparison, 1,519 fish were harvested in 2022 when ice conditions were ideal.
The southeast corner of Lake Winnebago saw the highest harvest for the season. The Pipe registration station took the lead in number of fish registered opening weekend with 124 fish and has consistently had the highest registration numbers throughout the season with final count of 399 fish. The Southwest Winnebago and Stockbridge registration stations both had the next most fish registered at just about 200 fish each.
There were plenty of big fish to see this season, with 46 fish over 100 pounds for the season (9 fish from the Upriver Lakes and 37 fish from Lake Winnebago). The largest fish this season was a 177.3 pound, 79.9 inch, F4 female that was speared on Lake Winnebago and registered at the Southwest Winnebago registration station.
We hope every spearer had a great season. It was great seeing everyone back at the regular registration stations; we enjoyed being able to celebrate with you and hear your spearing stories.
Congrats to everyone who successfully speared a fish. We can’t wait to see everyone out on the ice next year.