Wisconsin Record Gator

[Born to Fish]

The following are portions of a news article sent me by my family back in Wisconsin.

Dave Piechowski of Redgranite speared a record-breaking 188-pound [79-1/2 inches long] sturgeon through the ice on Lake Winnebago on the opening morning of that special season. That wasn't the only record broken. Spearers registered a total of 1,303 sturgeon, including so many adult females that the DNR will close the season after only two days. The previous opening day record was 977 set in 2000.

Dave's new record for the lake surpasses the previous Winnebago record set in 1953, which weighted in at 180 pounds and was 73 years old. The age on the new record has not yet been determined.

The big fish battled for about 15 minutes before Dave and his brother could get things under control.

A DNR aerial survey counted 4,751 spearing shanties on the lake, up from 4,150 shanties in 2003. According to DNR records, 8,912 licenses had been sold to the public.

Sorry I don't have a photo to include.

Dean

[chinookin]

speared? :whazzup:

[Lwagg2]

I read a article on this the other day found it fascinating

Guided Sturgeon Spearing
Sturgeon Spearing opens the second Saturday in February every year.

$100.00 Fee per day per shanty
Includes: Ice Shanty, Spear, Gaf Hook, Decoy & Heat

What to bring:
license: $20.00 Resident, $50.00 Non-Resident
radio, food, drink, camera

Spearing Information
The Winnebago system likely holds the largest natural sustaining lake sturgeon population in the world, and is used as an egg source for lake sturgeon re-introduction and rehabilitation projects throughout the fish's original North American range.

Sturgeon are slow growing, long lived fish found in excess of 160 pounds in weight and 80 years of age.

Both males and females will attain legal size in the spear fishery (36 inches) in 7 to 10 years. Males and females generally grow at similar rates up to about 40 inches, after which females grow faster.

In 2000 there were an estimated 9264 adult females and 27359 adult males in the Winnebago - Upper Fox Wolf system.

New Rule for 2003
Beginning with the 2003 season, spearer's must purchase their licenses by October 31 to participate in the ensuing spearing season.

Bag Limit: One lake sturgeon per license

Note: A valid fishing license will not be required to purchase a sturgeon spearing license in 2003 for the 2004 spearing season.

Email: Lonny or Jim to book a shanty or to get more information on their guided sturgeon spearing trips

for pics see web page

[notaclue]

if the fish are being speared how do you know if they are above the 36" legal size for the ones that are close?

[Born to Fish]

Yup....they've been doing this for many, many years on Lake Winnebago which is part of the Fox River chain of lakes.

Picture this....cut a door-sized hole in the ice. Drag your window-less shanty over the hole. Sit in the interior darkness over this hole waiting for a legal sized [used to be minimum 36-inches - don't know if that has changed] gator to come along. The only light you have is that which passes through the surrounding ice and is reflected back up from the bottom - very shallow lake. Some spearers will dump white beans or rice to the bottom to help in reflecting light and enabling better view of passing fish. Some folks will use wooden fish decoys jigged below to attract curious gators.

The trick is that once you spear your quarry and get it up to the hole, you make a hasty retreat out of the shanty before fishie beats the heck out of you and the interior of your little ice palace.

Dean

[Lwagg2]

round the pic of the actual record breaking fish



to read more on the rules of their fishing ways
click wisconsin DNR

[Sublime]

hmmm, [img]graemlins/eek13.gif[/img] would take a pretty long spear below Bonnie [img]graemlins/eek13.gif[/img]

[Mojo]

Holy Crapola Dean...We gotta get TEAM MOOSE DROLL back there for the spearing season next year. Not too sporting, but definitley a kick in the buuuutttttt! That fish would drag Tim and me both in the ice hole... :grin:

[FrogPond]

What they don't tell you is that they use DECOYS! A supervisor I work with was back there for the one and only day the season was open. He brought back a couple of these decoys. I will see if he has them in his office so I can get a picture. I though it sounded pretty weird, spearing sturgeon and using decoys...I guess they thought it was pretty weird that we catch them in a river using bait & heavy rods. Check out the stories from the local paper
record gator
big harvest

[Born to Fish]

Originally posted by FrogPond:
What they don't tell you is that they use DECOYS! A supervisor I work with was back there for the one and only day the season was open. He brought back a couple of these decoys. I will see if he has them in his office so I can get a picture. I though it sounded pretty weird, spearing sturgeon and using decoys...I guess they thought it was pretty weird that we catch them in a river using bait & heavy rods.

<font size="2" face="verdana,arial,helvetica">FrogPond - I mentioned the fact that they use wooden fish decoys in my second posting on this thread.

I don't think that anybody back there thinks that the way sturgeon are fished out here is "weird."

Iwagg2, thanks for posting that picture - it was much better then the one in the newspaper clipping that I was sent.

Besides this very unique fishery, Lake Winnebago is also a premier walleye fishery where local and national tournaments are routinely held.

Mojo, I'll pass on that. This is something I was never interested in doing while living back there - too much other terrific ice fishing available.

Dean

[ 02-24-2004, 09:39 PM: Message edited by: Born to Fish ]

[fishnpray]

Crazy stuff. Definitely a big feesh. Wonder how they are on the battering side of things? :-) I only think w/ my stomach.

-Luis

[James in Idaho]

I'm just trying to figure out the amount of beer those cheeseheads drank during that season!!!!!! How many pounds of brauts??? I should send that picture to my cheesehead brother in law, see if he'll take my nephew spearing!!!!!!!!!! Yeah, right. Oh well, at least my sis sends him out here for a few days every fall to shoot pheasants with his uncle and granddad. Maybe a mule deer next year.

[Hoosier Daddy]

What a DINK!! That's the record?!?!

Just kidding..

[Riverliver]

I hope they don't call that a SPORT.

[FrogPond]

Borntofish-
sorry...didn't mean to double up on the decoy part
I was just retelling the accounts that my co-worker reported since he was there. I guess it depends on who you talk to if they think it's weird. [img]graemlins/icon_argue.gif[/img]
I found the story ammusing and sad. I immediately thought of our oversized fish and how important they are to the population. I also realized that this is a completely different fishery, so I would leave the worrying to their biologists (thnx stgrule). I won't even talk about how they return the fish that aren't 36" long...Can you say spear and release? And we have a problem handling fish? :whazzup:
The story I got was that this "season" is quite the party. Sounded like to participate you had to drink 46 beers and eat 14lbs of cheese before they allow you on the ice. [img]graemlins/dork.gif[/img]

Sorry, the decoys aren't in his office, maybe he will bring them in tomorrow.

[GOT2FISH]

[Born to Fish]

FrogPond, no big deal.

I'm sure there are large quantities of brew and brats consumed. Not necessarily limited just to the stugeon spearers - saw lots of partying on the ice when I grew up and ice-fished back there.

Ice fishing there, and in many other parts of the country is very sociable whether alcohol is consumed or not. Quite a contrast - few, if any concerns on keeping your distance. Try to get close to your neighbor in any other fishing situation and they'd be throwing rocks and insults at you.

I'm not going to argue whether or not this is "sporting" since I have no feelings either way. It's something that the state has allowed for many years, for whatever reason. Like I commented to Mojo earlier, it's not something I was ever interested in doing. To each his own - I'm not going to formulate judgement [as others have] when these people are acting within the letter of the law and customs/tradition of the area.

Geez I could go for a bratwurst right now....

Dean

[SPAZZ]

WOW What a gator