Wisconsin’s sturgeons are almost done spawning, after a chilly spring drew out the season out a little longer than normal, according to Department of Natural Resources biologists.
The annual spawning season along the Wolf River watershed draws hundreds of spectators. This year’s has spanned more than two weekends, giving more people the opportunity to get an up-close look at the large, ancient fish.
Ryan Koenigs, the DNR’s sturgeon biologist for the Winnebago System, says the cold, icy winter didn’t have an impact on spawning.
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“We have had a colder-than-average spring though, so water temperatures are getting to the optimal spawning range for fish to come in later in the year than what they normally do,” said Koenigs.
Koenigs said that there have been years when sturgeon spawning occurred even later that this year’s. The normal spawning season goes from mid-April to the beginning of May.
Biologists are tagging fish and collecting eggs. Koenigs says some of those eggs will help re-populate sturgeon in other parts of the country.
“There’s people from the (U.S.) Fish and Wildlife Service up here; they work down in Georgia and Tennessee and they’re taking fish down there to stock in the upper Tennessee River drainage for a restoration program down there,” said Koenigs. “There’s also staff from our Wild Rose fish hatchery here which are collecting fertilized eggs. Those fish will be stocked out in tributaries to Lake Michigan.”
Koenigs says the spawning season should wrap up by the end of the week. He says the area near the Shawano dam is seeing the most action right now.
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