# Lake Sturgeon spearing in Wisconsin



## arrow2 (Feb 16, 2012)

Well just got back from my annual Lake Sturgeon spearing trip to Wisc. We did well this year from left to right is my Niece Cassie, with her 65lber, my Nefew Pete with his 35lber and me with my 76lber. We had a great trip, we moved after sitting Saterday to a lake I had never been on before at 7:20 AM on Sunday mine came swimming in, I threw the spear and game on. Then Cassie sat in my shack and about an 45 minutes later hers came in. About 10:30 Pete speared his out of his shack about 50 yards from mine. All in all had a great time, as this was the first time we had all speared a fish the same day.


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## Boar Hog (Feb 16, 2012)

Good job guys! Does one eat sturgeon? If so what does it taste like?


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## arrow2 (Feb 16, 2012)

They are good to eat, real white and firm meat.
Alot better than them gators.


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## fredw (Feb 16, 2012)

arrow2, that sounds like fun.  How thick was the ice.  Tell us about the equipment you need for spearing.


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## Lukikus2 (Feb 16, 2012)

fredw said:


> arrow2, that sounds like fun.  How thick was the ice.  Tell us about the equipment you need for spearing.



X 2

That is cool.(No pun intended)

More pic's, more pic's.

That ice behind you looks like it's thinning


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## arrow2 (Feb 16, 2012)

Ice on this lake was about 10" thick but solid. 
Equipment needed is some Kahunas, big saw,shack heater spear and beer. This year had been unusually warm up there so the ice was thinner than a normal year.
Last year we has about 30" ice. The bar on my saw is 42" and have had years where it just made the cut. My hole in the ice is 4'x8'. It is very boring until one comes in. Heres a pic of a small on on a spear a few years back.


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## fredw (Feb 16, 2012)

Is it a "sit and wait" deal or do you use some sort of bait to draw them in?  I assume there's a limit on them?

This just seems like a "cool" thing to do.  I did a lot of ice fishing when my company transferred me north for six years.  Sure do miss it.


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## arrow2 (Feb 16, 2012)

Yep, it's kinda like looking at a blank TV, you may see some other types of fish too, Saturday we saw a smaller sturgeon may 45", gar and nothern pike. You hang a decoy down, you name it it's been down as a decoy. We  had a small ball down for these three. The length limit is 36" which is real small. There were 13000 tags sold. The area we were on only allows 500 spearers and they have quotas set if they hit the quota they shut it down that day. There were 242 fish speared on this area in 2 days.


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## arrow2 (Oct 16, 2012)

Just got a letter in the mail from the Wisc. DNR, the sturgeon I speared back in Feb was 44 years old. Kinda amazing I would have been 3 when his mom spawned.
When you register them, the DNR take the bone out of the leading edge of one of the fins, they slice it and count the rings similar to growth rings of a tree.


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## nadroj18 (Oct 17, 2012)

I've never heard of this, I must say I'd love to give this a try.  I'm curious though, when you spear the fish, is the spear barbed?  It seems like if it wasn't, the fish could just take off.  This sport looks like it would take a toll on my liver though.


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## shakey gizzard (Oct 18, 2012)

Cool! Here's a good link to see whats running!     http://wolfrivercam.com/Lake Winnebago.html


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## arrow2 (Oct 22, 2012)

nadroj18 said:


> I've never heard of this, I must say I'd love to give this a try.  I'm curious though, when you spear the fish, is the spear barbed?  It seems like if it wasn't, the fish could just take off.  This sport looks like it would take a toll on my liver though.



If you look at the picture of the one with the spear in it, you can see the barbs. Flying barbs, they close on entry and open on exit. Yes the liver does get a good work out.


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## Lparker73 (Nov 12, 2012)

thats really really cool.


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