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172-pound sturgeon

IFallsRon

By IFallsRon
in Ice Fishing

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IFallsRon Grand Master

IFallsRon

Posted
Posted

FOND DU LAC, Wis.—Ed Blatz brought in one of the largest sturgeon ever speared on Lake Winnebago as the season ended after just four days Tuesday. Blatz, of Fond du Lac, bagged a 172-pounder that measured 78 inches in length.

It is the third largest sturgeon taken from the lake since record keeping began in the 1950s. The only larger ones were a 180-pounder caught in 1953 and a 188-pounder caught in 2004.

Blatz's catch was one of 43 sturgeon speared this year that weighed 100 pounds or more.

"This is the greatest run of large trophy-sized fish in the harvest in more than 50 years and an indication of the health of the Winnebago sturgeon stock," said Ron Bruch, sturgeon biologist with the state Department of Natural Resources.

He credited tighter regulations over the past two decades with helping to protect the sturgeon population.

The rules include a harvest cap that requires shutting the season down after a certain number of fish are taken.

This year, spearers had bagged 528 adult female sturgeon through Monday, or about 90 percent of the harvest cap of 556, so the season closed at 12:30 p.m. Tuesday.

A total of 1,513 sturgeon were taken from Lake Winnebago and upriver lakes.

The lake sturgeon is a throwback to the age of dinosaurs 100 million years ago. The fish can live to 100 years old.

They have bony plates instead of scales, among other unique characteristics. Females do not become sexually mature and start producing eggs until they are 20 to 25 years old.

Spearers place shanties on the lake, cut holes through the ice and wait until a sturgeon swims beneath them, within range of the spear.

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ImissReeds Apprentice

ImissReeds

Posted
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Its kind of a shame, one poke and its over for such an old fish. I like being able to catch and release these fish and only be able to keep a potential state record if caught.

Who needs to be eating something thats older than they are?

Whoever said its the "best fish ever smoked" is full of it IMO. I do think they are pretty good, but not notably better than Whitefish or even Hammerhandle Northerns for that matter. Tell me which fish removed is harder on the resource. Oh well, Sconnies gotta kill em I guess.

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Fish Toys Mentor

Fish Toys

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His spear is a pretty big one. Heard some weigh close to whistle.gif 40 lbs. More than likely it has removable tines. A lot of the spears have a set screw of some kind to hold the tines onto the spear head. When they spear a fish they will loosen the set screw on the tines that are in the fish and push the tine all the way through it to remove the tine from the fish instead of trying to pull it back out. I haven’t seen any pictures of the big spears but it would be great if someone could post one! grin.gif
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blackdog1101 Experienced

blackdog1101

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 Originally Posted By: ImissReeds
Its kind of a shame, one poke and its over for such an old fish. I like being able to catch and release these fish and only be able to keep a potential state record if caught.

Who needs to be eating something thats older than they are?

I agree. After 100 years leave it alone.

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JoeTC Community Regular

JoeTC

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After over 50 years of allowing sturgeon spearing and still to be producing that many big fish I think Wisconson DNR is doing a fine job of managing their resource. Congrats to the man who speared it. I saw a special on the news once about sturgeon spearing on Winnagego and it's quite the tradition they have going there.

Joe

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