100 year old record Sturgeon

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OSHKOSH, Wis. – A Wisconsin wildlife official says the record-setting sturgeon speared over the weekend may have been more than 100 years old.

Ron Bruch is a fisheries supervisor with the state Department of Natural Resources. He says officials haven’t yet determined the age of the 212-pound fish. But he says a preliminary look suggests it’s at least a century old.

According to The Reporter of Fond du Lac, if that’s true, the female sturgeon would have laid some 11 million eggs in her lifetime.

The sturgeon was speared Saturday by Ron Grishaber of Appleton. It was 84 inches long, or about the height of Milwaukee Bucks center Andrew Bogut.

The previous record was a 188-pound sturgeon caught six years ago. That fish was about five inches shorter than Grishaber’s.

Thats a biggin

That is a monster fish.

oops..didn’t see the other post on this….

I can’t believe a fish like that is stuck and there are no pics.

Here is one from the newspaper…

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It’s kind of odd that a LOTW’s Lake Sturgeon would be about 50 pounds and they’re guessing this one to be 100 or so.

I know fish grow differently in different bodies of water…but 50 years different?

It would be interesting to know if a LS has a “prime” egg laying time and what that is.

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It may not be for me or you but…..

They do it because it’s been a long lasting successful, fun, tradition on one of, if not the greatest Sturgeon fishery’s in the World.

The Fisheries division “DNR” does a fantastic job of running it through lottery tag applications along with regulating “closing it once quota’s are reached” the Sturgeon Harvest so taking a few hundred fish every year doesn’t hurt a thing except a few anti-spear-ers feelings. .

Among other great things the residents of the area during the spawn volunteer to keep watch over the Spawning area’s to curtail poachers…It’s really an unique and important event for the area.

It seems to get better every year hats off to the Winnebago Sturgeon Event!

I’m going to bite Gary.

I’m not anti spearer or anti sturgeon harvester. It’s legal and watched over closely.

So I shouldn’t have an issue right? ‘ell, it’s not even close to the area that I fish!

I just get a queezy feeling in my gut when I see it….and of course that’s my problem, not the guys/gals spearing.

Damn, I’m starting to sound like a tree hugger in my old age.

It is interesting how we feel about this. We have worked so hard to train ourselves to catch and release that we have a hard time when we see something like this. When I was young, we kept almost anything we caught. It was not long after the Great Depression and my mother in particular had spent a lot of time being hungry so fish on the table was good.

Now, we have switched to sport and there are few things sportier than a very large sturgeon on the end of your line.

Whether or not this female was even viable as a breeder, most of us have no idea. That is one of the reasons the walleye limit lets you keep one over 28″ in Minnesota, those large females are not as able as breeders as fish that weigh 5 – 7#.

Still, I sure wish I had a chance to go around with that old girl.

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We have worked so hard to train ourselves to catch and release that we have a hard time when we see something like this. When I was young, we kept almost anything we caught.

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Exactly!

(except for the Great Depression part…. )

I couldn’t agree more with you guys Brian. No way no how could I stick a spear in a Fish like that. It’s just not for me but I’m happy for the guys/gals that can and are lucky enough to have a chance to do it…

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It may not be for me or you but…..

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I guess that’s what you said in the first place.

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It’s kind of odd that a LOTW’s Lake Sturgeon would be about 50 pounds and they’re guessing this one to be 100 or so.

I know fish grow differently in different bodies of water…but 50 years different?

It would be interesting to know if a LS has a “prime” egg laying time and what that is.

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I don’t understand this comment? Unless you meant a LOTW sturgeon would be 50 YEARS old….

Does our DNR claim a 200 lb fish would only be 50yrs?

The (3) tagged ones I have caught up there were in that mid-twenty pound range and were 22yrs old. I doubt if the fish I caught would have increased their weight 8-fold in 28 more years……nearly 7 lbs of weight gain per year (better than an average salmon)……..doesn’t seem plausible to me.

Tim

Yeah, Timmy…fingers not watching the brain. I meant pounds.

Going by the DNR chart for LOTWs the longest fish they have listed for age is a 70 incher and that’s estimated at 42 years old. Somewhere on the Dnr site it claims that a LS will grow about .8xx inches per year.

Using 42 years and 70 inches as a base, a 90 inch fish would be 22 years older…totaling 64 years old.

…although I’m sure they grow slower as they get larger.

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Yeah, Timmy…fingers not watching the brain. I meant pounds.

Going by the DNR chart for LOTWs the longest fish they have listed for age is a 70 incher and that’s estimated at 42 years old. Somewhere on the Dnr site it claims that a LS will grow about .8xx inches per year.

Using 42 years and 70 inches as a base, a 90 inch fish would be 22 years older…totaling 64 years old.

…although I’m sure they grow slower as they get larger.

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We hooked a tagged lake sturgeon on Wissota in 08 that was 71″ . We sent info in to DNR for possible feed back on the fish. They stated it was tagged 11 years prior in 1997 at a length of 68″. Which showed us the growth rate for length as they get older appeared very slow, only 3″ in 11 years. Just thought I would throw these numbers up for more calculative ideas.

I’d like to do it just once. I rarely harvest fish, unless they are nonreturnable, but this would be something to do just to say you did it. Then you can lie and say how gross they are to eat and how the eggs are disgusting to turn off other people.

I know one of the best things you can do for most species in most fisheries is harvest the more abundant smaller fish, but I still don’t. But I’ll eat a potato chip panfish with a gram of meat if I gut hook’em.

If your are talking about time of year spawning for lake sturgeon starts around April and can run to June depending on water temperature which they prefer between 55-65 degrees.

If you are talking about prime time of life female lake sturgeon don’t start to spawn until they are 14 to 30 years old but most often around 24-25 years old for females. Females only spawn every 4 to 9 years so even at 100 yeas old this fish may have only spawned 20 times if it spawned every 4 years starting at age 25.

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I’m going to bite Gary.

I’m not anti spearer or anti sturgeon harvester. It’s legal and watched over closely.

So I shouldn’t have an issue right? ‘ell, it’s not even close to the area that I fish!

I just get a queezy feeling in my gut when I see it….and of course that’s my problem, not the guys/gals spearing.

Damn, I’m starting to sound like a tree hugger in my old age.

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Apparently BK I am more like you than I would like to think LOL. I just dont understand the point of spearing such a large fish. Fish like that are meant to be caught another day aren’t they?

They don’t have an open water season on the waters these fish are being taken “speared” from but if one were to hook into a 200 pound Lake Sturgeon while fishing for other specie I’m fairly certain you won’t be landing it on that type of hook n’line set-up…

Here’s a link with some pretty interesting information on the Winnebago Lake Sturgeon saga. They estimate at one time there were over a million Lake Sturgeon in the great lakes system and around the turn of the century Caviar poachers had almost completely eliminated the Lake Sturgeon. Quite the story and come back for the Wisconsin Lake Sturgeon.

http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/fish/sturgeon/lakewinnebago/

That is a magnificent fish. I don’t feel queasy about the harvest of that fish. The sturgeon fishery over there is very regulated and sustainable. I feel more queasy about a manure spreader full of Buffalos that were stuck with arrows. It might help you all to know that Sturgeon are not even native to that Winnebago system. They sure seem to do well over there though. I’m not sure if there is but they should allow for an angling season over there too for us catch and release people.

I found this pic of that fish.

That’s some fish…what’s the life expectency of lake sturgeon anyhow? Amazing.

As far as harvest of trophy class fish, but I get more concerned when you’re talking about the impact of harvest on a larger scale (e.g. setlining, commercial fishing). However, there seems to be a lot more respect for fisheries these days and a lot more discussion of selective harvest etc. I’m not so naiive to think there still aren’t “meat hogs” out there, but regarless of my opinion if someone is following the rules and not displaying wanted waste/disregard for the fishery, what can you really do other than offer suggestion?

Amazing acheivement regardless, what a fish!

shawn

Well the season shuts down today… Green Bay Gazette
Check out the video on a Neenah women’s fish…..

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Well the season shuts down today… Green Bay Gazette
Check out the video on a Neenah women’s fish…..

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I don’t know. I know it’s legal and regualted, but it just seems wrong to me. At least not enjoyable, I’d rather tangle with a big sturgeon on the end of a line.

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I’d rather tangle with a big sturgeon on the end of a line.

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Count me in on that. I can’t imagine they have a spearing season and no hook and line season. Doesn’t make sense. Sturgeon are making an amazing comeback after such incredibly stupid abuse.

Not sure if you guys like other people telling you what to do but…

I think abuse is a little strong since the population is managed extremely well.

It appears that we have a couple of different opinions here.

The Winnebago system has a long tradition of spearing that still produces big fish from time to time like we see this year. They must be doing conservation right in order to produce big fish like that consistantly.

I appreciate conservationally-minded folks that want big fish like that to live but they don’t live forever either. I am an avid catch and release angler myself but it is nice to be able to harvest a trophy once in awhile and I think it is wrong for us to look down on someone who does harvest a fish like that.

It’s not like sturgeon spearing is allowed on all choice sturgeon waters either.

At least the fish doesn’t turn to fertilizer like some fish taken by bow & arrow.

Would some of you guys feel better if that fish was caught with a hook & line and then harvested? The result would be the same. I think it is regulated enough to allow.

It is not my intention to slight anybody’s opinion here but to just respectfully share my own.

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Would some of you guys feel better if that fish was caught with a hook & line and then harvested? The result would be the same. I think it is regulated enough to allow.

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I would hate to see that fish killed either way. However the answer to your question is yes. For some reason I would feel better if that fish was caught on rod and reel. Maybe because that fish would have more of a chance to escape while fighting on hook vs. having a spear in it’s back.

A more honorable death perhaps? I honestly don’t know, just a thought.