Dear Winnebago System Sturgeon Enthusiasts:
There has been quite a bit of interest in when the sturgeon will start spawning on the Wolf and upper Fox Rivers and I am glad to finally report that we are starting to see sturgeon spawning activity. I actually just got home from working a few fish at two spawning sites in the Berlin area on the upper Fox River. Water temperatures in this area reached 54 degrees on Tuesday and the temperatures have remained just warm enough to push the fish over the edge and commence spawning activity. Although, we did not tag many fish on the upper Fox tonight, there were multiple spawning pods at multiple sites within Berlin City limits, particularly Riverside Park. There did not appear to be a large number of females actively spawning at any of these sites, so I’m not sure if fish will still be spawning here in the morning or not.
As for the Wolf River, we saw some of the first glimmer of pre-spawn activities this afternoon at numerous sites. Typically sturgeon will begin porpoising (jumping out of the water) a few days to a week in advance of spawning activity at a site. As spawning actively gets closer, male sturgeon will actively “cruise” near the rocked shorelines of sturgeon spawning sites. This “cruising” activity was observed this afternoon at numerous known spawning sites on the Wolf River including the Sturgeon Trail on County X in New London, Pfeifer Park on the Embarrass River in New London, Bamboo Bend in Shiocton, and a few other sites on private property. Typically sturgeon spawning will take place within 24-48 hours of observed cruising activity, meaning that we are very close to sturgeon spawning starting on the Wolf River. We are not 100% sure what the cooler weather and rain tomorrow will do to spawning activity, but it would not surprise me if we have heavy spawning activity starting tomorrow and carrying into the next few days. As many of you may know, or have heard me say in the past, predicting exactly when these fish will spawn and where is very difficult. So don’t miss the chance to come out and potentially see this fish spawn. Our law enforcement staff have been updating the sturgeon hotline (920)303-5444, so feel free to call the hotline for more current information about where sturgeon activity may be taking place.
I will try to send out another update tomorrow evening notifying people of spawning activity, but I wouldn’t suggest waiting too long before making plans to come see these fish spawn, particularly at spawning sites lower down on the Wolf River in New London and Shiocton.
