Much like Gold Rush-era boomtowns, a busy community appears every winter on the frozen surface of Wisconsin’s Lake Winnebago System.

Folks on the ice don’t seek precious metals, though. Rather, they hope for a chance to take home one of the world’s most fascinating fish: lake sturgeon. And the brief annual season represents a winter fishing extravaganza like nothing else.

Overview

The Winnebago System — lakes Winnebago, Butte des Morts, Winneconne and Poygan — holds North America’s largest self-sustaining lake sturgeon population. There is no hook-and-line season for the fish, but tens of thousands of people participate in an annual winter spearing season. The first modern season was held in 1932, and the spear-fishery has grown into a huge cultural event. Every February, thousands of spearing shanties dot the surface of Lake Winnebago and, to a lesser extent, the Upriver Lakes. In 2022, 12,694 people purchased spearing licenses.

“Spearing is a tradition that dates back many generations for those in the Winnebago area,” said Margaret Stadig, sturgeon biologist with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. “Families work together and enjoy the season together. Many also get to see friends they haven’t seen in a long time. The atmosphere is just electric. It’s such a unique opportunity. There are only two places in the United States where you have a chance to spear one of these dinosaur-like fish, with Lake Winnebago being the premier destination.”

Lonny Ziemer, owner of Rod-Bender Guide Service, has guided spearers on Winnebago for more than 25 years, and he said the spearing season holds a unique appeal.

“It’s really a combination of hunting and fishing, so it’s kind of like deer hunting, but you don’t have to worry about the sound so much or your scent at all,” he said. “You can just sit there and relax and look down the hole.”

Lake sturgeon are an ancient fish, having appeared about 100 million years ago. Primarily bottom dwellers, they have a partly cartilaginous skeleton, bony plates on their sides and back, large prehensile lips for vacuuming up food, and four sensory organs — known as barbels — near their mouths. They’re very long-lived, with males surviving up to 55 years and females 80 to 150 years, and can grow to a huge size, with females sometimes topping 7 feet long and 200 pounds. The largest Winnebago lake sturgeon ever caught was 125 years old, weighed 240 pounds and measured 87.5 inches. It was tagged and released by DNR fisheries personnel.

Sturgeon were once killed as nuisances because they damaged fishing gear. From about 1879 through 1900, they were targeted by Great Lakes commercial fishermen, who often brought in 4 million pounds of sturgeon per year. Coupled with pollution and the construction of dams, which inhibited spawning runs, that soon caused drastic drops in sturgeon populations. Lake sturgeon became rare and protected in many areas. However, the Winnebago System population continues to thrive, thanks in large part to careful management and the efforts of conservation groups, such as Sturgeon for Tomorrow. Stadig said the system currently has about 25,000 adult male sturgeon and 15,000 adult females.

“While this population is one of the healthiest in the United States, the lake sturgeon’s life history makes them vulnerable to overharvest,” she said. “But the DNR and spearers work together through mandatory in-person registration to ensure that harvest during the spearing season does not exceed safe harvest rates for the species.”

Spearers can only purchase one license and take one fish, with a minimum length of 36 inches.

The spearing season can run for up to 16 days but has system-wide harvest caps for males, juvenile females and adult females. When 90 to 99 percent of any quota is reached, the season will end at 1 p.m. the next day. If 100 percent of any quota is realized, the DNR can enact an emergency stoppage. The Upriver Lakes season is limited to 500 licenses because spearers there have far better success rates — about 62 percent versus 9 percent — in the relatively shallow lakes than on Lake Winnebago. Upriver tags are distributed through a drawing, and spearers must apply for a permit or purchase a preference point before Aug. 1. Winnebago tags are unlimited, but spearers must purchase them before Oct. 31. And as mentioned, all fish must be registered in person at checkpoints on the lake.

Practical Considerations

Spearing itself might seem fairly simple and straightforward, with spearers sitting in a darkened shack, peering into a hole in the ice, hoping for a fish to swim through. In fact, the activity has been likened to looking up a chimney and hoping to see a duck fly by. However, it has many nuances.

The first consideration starts after safe ice forms: locating potentially productive sturgeon areas in the vast open water of 137,000-plus-acre Lake Winnebago.

“What I get my gratification from is finding fish,” said Ziemer, who typically runs about 35 shacks on the lake each season. “Not everybody can seem to do it. A lot of folks just show up the day before the season, look for other people and just cut in near them. I’m out there as soon as we have safe ice with the ATV. I’ll be fishing while scouting, but I’ll have the LiveScope down, sometimes dropping a decoy, and just fishing in spots for 20 minutes or so and getting a feel if sturgeon are in there. It varies each year where they are. Some years, they’re in the same spots, but it’s about finding the food or figuring out what the forage is for the year.”

Winnebago sturgeon feed heavily on dead gizzard shad and bloodworms, which are the aquatic larvae of Winnebago’s abundant lake flies (a nonbiting midge).

“Hopefully, most years we’re on them before the season starts,” Ziemer said. “Finding bigger fish is even better. Some years, we can find those bigger fish, and those bigger 100-pound fish often stick together in groups. So, if you’re on big fish, there are usually more big fish there.”

Ziemer said finding areas with the best visibility is also paramount, as turbidity will vary throughout the lake, and relatively clear water lets spearers better see passing fish. That’s especially critical when forage is not abundant, as sturgeon spread out. (In recent years, some spearers have started using underwater cameras, and there are no rules against this. Many spearers, however, still pursue sturgeon in the traditional manner, without technology.)

After locating potential spots, spearers use specialized chainsaws to cut large holes in the ice. Ziemer said hole sizes can vary depending on the size of the shack, but his holes typically measure 3 by 6 feet (the maximum allowed is 48 square feet). His crew runs five saws and can cut about 35 holes in three to four hours. Some spearers cut in the Thursday before the season’s opening Saturday, but most do so Friday. Ice holes larger than 12 inches cut, used or maintained for spearing cannot be covered by a shelter or shanty until 48 hours before the season. The holes must be marked with at least two strips of wood that extend at least 3 feet above the ice.

After cutting through the ice, spearers must then push the severed ice, or “keg,” into the water and under the lake ice. Then, they can place a shack over the hole and use snow to bank in the foundation and ensure darkness inside.

Spearing hours run from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. That might seem like a brief window, but spearing isn’t often action-packed. In fact, it can involve long hours — even seasons — of staring into a hole at nothing.

“A lot of times, you don’t see any fish of any sort at all, so it really catches you off guard when you see a sturgeon,” Ziemer said. “You think you’re seeing stuff. That water usually isn’t super clear, so when you’re gazing down that hole and all of a sudden you see a different color in the water and it’s moving, especially at that depth where you lose clarity, it kind of takes your breath away.”

Some spearers might react by grabbing the spear and throwing it as hard as possible, but Ziemer said that’s a mistake.

“You want to slowly, quietly grab the spear off the hook, figure out which way they’re moving, try not to hit their head, and kind of push off with that spear gently,” he said. “The weight of the spear and the sharpness of the tines are usually enough to get good penetration. Once you’ve got it on, you just fight it like a fish on a tip-up. Get the decoys out of the hole first so they don’t tangle up. If you keep sturgeon off the bottom, they’ll just keep doing circles until they tire out. Sometimes, they don’t fight at all. But if you hit one toward the tail, you can be fighting them for quite a while.”

When spearers land a fish, they typically remove it from the shack, and then the celebration begins.

“It’s neat to have new clients who have never done it come in and spear their first fish,” he said. “Some of those people are really hooked on it.”

Conclusion

Spearing a sturgeon results in a great trophy and creates lots of stories, especially when folks gather around to view the fish at lakeside registration stations. As an added benefit, sturgeon make fine table fare, whether smoked, deep-fried after being soaked in milk, or cut into 1-inch steaks for the grill. Further, successful spearers forge a bond with one of the country’s ice-fishing traditions.

“It’s almost the only place in the world you can do it,” Ziemer said. “It’s just a super-unique fishery.”