Sturgeon spawning seems to be slowing down on the Winnebago System. Fish spawned pretty hard at the Sturgeon Trail last night and into this morning, but by early morning they had backed off substantially. Our crew was able to handle 53 fish at this site today before things fizzled, including a 73.8” ripe female! The only other locations where spawning was observed was in Princeton on the upper Fox River and at the Manawa Dam on the Little Wolf River. Our crews did attempt to tag fish at both of these locations, but numbers were very small (10 at Princeton and 2 at Manawa).
Looking forward to tomorrow, Sunday, the big question remains on when will the fish come in to spawn at more sites in New London (Memorial Park, Pfeifer Park, etc.) and in spawning sites in the Shiocton area. Some fish were observed at all of these sites today, but none of these sites contained actively spawning fish. Rather they are just exhibiting pre-sign behaviors and we will wait until they are “ready to go”. So for people interested in seeing sturgeon spawning tomorrow, I first recommend calling the Sturgeon Hotline (920)303-5444 to see if and where fish may be spawning. This may save a trip to the Wolf River that ends with little spawning activity observed.
If I hear anything in the meantime, I will try to send out an email before our crew leaves the office to tag fish.
