148-pound sturgeon the largest in Wisconsin through Sunday

Pipe, Wis. — Don Feldner, of Fond du Lac, speared the largest sturgeon so far this season when, on Sunday, Feb. 9, he iced a 148-pounder that measured 74.6 inches.

Felnder said that the big fish is his first sturgeon in 19 years. He said his father once caught a 106-pound sturgeon and his son, Ryan, caught a 90-pound fish.

Feldner’s fish easily surpassed both of those marks.

Feldner caught his sturgeon on Lake Winnebago.

The Winnebago system sturgeon spearing season opened Saturday, Feb. 8.

First day

Fishermen marked a big day on the first day of the season. The South end of Lake Winnebago was the hot spot, with 211 fish being registered at Wendt’s and 121 fish being registered at Jim and Linda’s Supper Club in Pipe, according to Ryan Koenigs, the DNR’s sturgeon biologist.

Spearers harvested just more than 42 percent of the Lake Winnebago adult female harvest cap the first day.

“That means that the season will likely continue into the early part of this week,” said Koenigs.

Lake Winnebago spearers registered 636 fish on the first day. Of that number, 44 fish weighed 100 pounds or more.

William Zahringer had the largest fish on opening day. His fish tipped the scales at 143.9 pounds and measured 75.4 inches.

Second day

Day two of the 2014 sturgeon season saw spearers once again able to harvest some very nice fish. The south end of Lake Winnebago was once again the hot spot with Wendt’s on the Lake leading the way with 76 fish on the second day. The registration station at Jim and Linda’s Supper Club in Pipe was not far behind with 58 fish being registered there on Sunday.

“The harvest from day two was roughly half that of day one, meaning that the season on Lake Winnebago will likely go a few days into this week,” said Koenigs

Spearers registered 321 sturgeon from Lake Winnebago, with 21 of those fish weighing more than 100 pounds.

‘Upriver’ season

As for the upriver lakes of Poygan, Butte des Morts and Winneconne – there the season runs under a different cap system – the season came down to the wire on the second day.

“The harvest was very close to emergency closure due to reaching 100 percent of the adult female harvest cap. In fact, the upriver lakes season would have ended after today, Sunday, if one more adult female would have been harvested,” said Koenigs.

In light of that harvest, the season ended at 1 p.m. Monday, Feb. 10, lasting just three short days.

“The success rate for spearers on the upriver lakes was very high this year,” said Koenigs.

A total of 242 fish were speared on the upriver lakes on opening day, which means that roughly half of the license holders for the lottery fishery registered a fish that day. After one day, spearers registered 69 percent of the adult female harvest cap and 65 percent of the male harvest cap for the upriver lakes.

Big fish

“Similar to years past, the real story this year is the big fish. We didn’t have any ‘Top 10’ fish harvested on opening day, but there still were 50 fish that tipped the scales at 100-plus pounds – 44 from Lake Winnebago and six from the upriver lakes,” said Koenigs.

The two largest fish harvested on Sunday were both registered at Stockbridge Harbor.”