Sturgeon spearing opening day is almost here in Wisconsin. Here's the latest on ice and weather.

LAKE WINNEBAGO — Sturgeon spearing is almost here, despite continued warm weather threatening ice integrity.

Opening day is Feb. 10, and while the days leading up to it are the most crucial for determining ice conditions, the outlook isn't very promising.

Local fishing clubs continue to advise against even small vehicles on the ice and urge caution if going out onto the ice at all — no ice is 100% safe.

Friendship Fishing Club at southwest Lake Winnebago measured about 7 inches or less on Feb. 5, about half a mile off Cemetery Road. The couple days leading up to the season will be the "real test of what we've got left here," Scott Blanck said on the club's Facebook page.

The National Weather Service predicts temperature highs at 51 degrees and 47 degrees Feb. 8 and 9, respectively, with a 60% chance of rain.

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Opening weekend forecast is sunny skies across the lakes with a high of 36 degrees, with temperatures staying in the 30s in the following days as the season gets rolling.

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has not been able to safely test water clarity this year — another indicator of whether a season will be a success.

Sturgeon food source chironomid larvae were down in the 2023 sampling, according to the DNR's Winnebago sturgeon biologist Margaret Stadig. The highest densities were in the Upriver Lakes, and the highest on Lake Winnebago were at the northern sites.

The 2024 season will last 16 days, unless any of the harvest caps are met. This year's systemwide caps are 350 juvenile females, 805 adult females and 1,242 males, according to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources' 2024 regulations.

For Lake Winnebago, this comes down to 280 juvenile females, 725 adult females and 994 males. For the Upriver Lakes — Lake Butte des Morts, Winneconne and Poygan — the caps are 70 juvenile females, 80 adult females and 248 males.

Spearing hours are 7 a.m. to 1 p.m., and spearers must register any harvested sturgeon by 2 p.m. each day at a DNR-operated registration station. Registration workers will ask spearers to put their take on tailgates or in an easily accessible location so the DNR can collect the data necessary to manage the Winnebago system sturgeon fishery.

This year's ice conditions are comparable to 2017, when the season lasted the full 16 days for both Lake Winnebago and the Upriver Lakes. The season yielded fewer than 1,000 total sturgeon, 552 from Lake Winnebago and 295 from the Upriver Lakes, and the final four days came and went without a single harvest.

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Warm weather hit the second half of the season that year, rapidly deteriorating the ice, and high winds then broke up the ice and created ice shoves on Lake Winnebago's south and west shores.

The 2016 harvest was even smaller; even though the ice was up to 18 inches thick in places, spearers were hindered by poor water clarity.

For updates on ice as the season progresses, check with local fishing clubs, including Friendship Fishing Club, Stockbridge Harbor Fishing Club, Lower Cliff Fishing Club, Pipe Fishing Club, Otter Street Fishing Club, Foot of the Lake Fishing Club, Quinney Fishing Club, Brothertown Fishing Club and Lake Poygan Sportsmen's Club.

Additionally, Don Herman posts ice conditions and concerns on the Facebook page for SUNK? Dive and Ice Service, his business that pulls sunken vehicles out of the ice.

For more information and updates on the sturgeon season itself, visit the DNR's website.

Daphne Lemke is the Streetwise reporter for the Fond du Lac Reporter. Contact her at dlemke@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Fond du Lac Reporter: Sturgeon spearing nears on Winnebago system with ice still unfavorable