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Sturegeon spearing outlawed statewide
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Spearing made legal on Lake Winnebago
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WI starts sturgeon management program
Due to growing concerns about overharvest of lake sturgeon, Wisconsin's starts managing the Winnebago System sturgeon population with a regulation that closes the spearing season from March 1 through May 25. The statewide minimum size limit was 8 pounds. Photo credit: Wisconsin Historical Society, WHi ID 24511 from "People of the Sturgeon." -
Sturgeon harvest banned in the state
Dwindling numbers of sturgeon due to overharvest, dams and pollution led Wisconsin to close the Winnebago season. -
Spearing season reopens
Wisconsin's legislature reopens the sturgeon spearing season as an economic relief measure during the Great Depression. The first regulated spearing season under this law was held on Lake Winnebago, Jan. 1 to March 1. There was a 30-inch minimum size limit, 5 bag limit per person per season, tags were $.05 each and a fishing license was required. -
First spearing harvest assessment
Wisconsin Conservation Department fish biologists Edward "Doc" Schneberger and Lowell Woodbury conduct the first fish assessment on the sturgeon spearing harvest. Schneberger later became the Wisconsin Conservation Department's first Chief of Fisheries. -
Sturgeon studies spur extensive rule changes
Winnebago sturgeon studies in the 1950s were used to set the first round of extensive rule changes in the late 1950s and early 1960s. (DNR photo) -
1st year of mandatory harvest registration
All spearers were required to register the sturgeon they speared so DNR could get a better handle on how many fish are harvested every year and also to calculate population estimates. -
First successful efforts to propagate lake sturgeon
First successful efforts to articifically propagate lake sturgeon conducted by Don Czeskleba at DNR's Wild Rose State Fish Hatchery and Fred Binkowski at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Center for Great Lakes Studies. -
Sturgeon for Tomorrow founded
Sturgeon for Tomorrow founded by spearers and eventually becomes a five-chapter private sturgeon conservation organization that has contributed more than $750,000 to sturgeon efforts. Photo: Original founders of Sturgeon for omorrow L-R: Mary Lou Schneider, Gloria Groeschel, Dan Groeschel, Betty Lemke, Lloyd Lemke, Kathy Casper, Bill Casper (Bob Rashid photo) -
Changing of the sturgeon guard
Dan Folz, left, known as the father of WI's modern sturgeon management program on the Winnebago System, retired in 1989 and was replaced by Ron Bruch, Folz's one-time intern. Wisconsin's program has become a national and world-wide model for successful sturgeon management under Bruch's leadership. Pat Durkin photo -
Citizens Advisory Committee established
The Winnebago Citizens Stgeon Advisory Committee, comprised of representatives of 30 sturgeon spearing and conservation organizations from the Winnebago region, established to work with DNR fisheries and law enforcement staff to develop and implement regulations and management actions. -
New harvest cap system debuts
Harvest cap system instituted following record harvest levels in mid-1990s that raised concerns about vulnerable adult female adults. Under the rule, the season is closed 24 hours after reaching 90% of the sex-specific harvest caps for adult females, juvenile females or males has been reached. -
Rehabilitation of sturgeon in the Upper Fox River
Rehabilitation of sturgeon in the Upper Fox River -- a 25-year project -- is launched by DNR, UW-Milwaukee Great Lakes Water Institute and Sturgeon for Tomorrow.
Photo: Fingerling sturgeon ready to stock in the upper Fox River. (Ron Bruch photo) -
Record number of spearers set for 2012
A record 12,680 people bought licenses to spear in the 2012 season, a reflection of the growing popularity. so come Feb. 11, they'll be holed up in their shanties, peering down through the green glow and hoping for a lake sturgeon to come into view. -
240-pound sturgeon captured
An 87.5-inch, 240-pound female sturgeon was captured below the Shawano Dam during spring spawning surveys. DNR crews measured, weighed and released the sturgeon, which is estimated to be 125 years old. -
Sturgeon return to Menominee River Indian Reservation
DNR fisheries staff worked with Menominee tribal leadership to transplant sturgeon from the Wolf River near Leeman to the Menominee Indian Reservation just below Keshena Falls, a stretch of river that had been without sturgeon for 125 years. This is the second year of a 10-year agreement to bring 100 sturgeon each year to a stretch of river that was historically one of the larger spawning sites on the Wolf before the dams went in downstream.
Photo: Menominee high schoolers help net sturgeon -
Age limit lowered for spearers
New in 2013, 12- and 13-year-olds can spear during the season under a measure passed as part of an effort to help encourage more people to try fishing and hunting. -
New biologist takes over
Ryan Koenigs, 28, becomes the third DNR fish biologist in the last half-century to lead DNR crews in managing sturgeon populations. He is shown with his predecessors, Dan Folz, left, and Ron Bruch, center. -
2014 season opens with new spearing hours
Spearers participating in the season will find new spearing hours in effect, from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. It's one of the many changes made by DNR and the citizens' advisory committee over the years to improve the season and better protect the sturgeon population.
