Remember when sturgeon spearing only yielded eight fish? These two years are tied for the worst harvest
FOND DU LAC — How bad can a sturgeon spearing season get under unfavorable conditions? Single-digits bad.
Regulated winter sturgeon spearing began in 1932 on Lake Winnebago and 1952 on the Upriver Lakes, and over the years, regulations such as season lengths and size minimums have shifted to address overharvesting, including the implementation of harvest caps in 2000, according to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.
However, there were two years in particular where overharvesting wasn't an issue.
On Jan. 31, 1969, spearers were still optimistic for a successful season: heavy snow in the months leading up to it fared well for water clarity, and a wave of frigid temperatures was favorable for the ice conditions. Chances were good that 1969 would beat the previous year's harvest of 21 sturgeon, "the poorest ever registered by the state," according to Fond du Lac Reporter archives.
The 22-day season, limited to Lake Winnebago that year, resulted in only eight total sturgeon harvested.
"Not too much can be said about the sturgeon spearing season thus far, and probably for the sake of the scores of miffed devotees of this activity, nothing at all should be said," The Reporter read on Feb. 14 of that year. "The sturgeon are there in big Lake Winnebago, all right, but Nature seems to be overly protective of them again."
The culprit was poor visibility. Visual depths in 1969 were reported at an average of 6 feet into the water, when ideal water clarity is considered to be 12 to 15 feet deep in order to see the bottom-dwellers well enough to spear them.
General ice fishing found much more success due to the state of the ice, but sturgeon spearers in the Feb. 14 report lamented the agony of spending all day staring into a hole of murky water.
"It's like sitting at home, looking straight into a solid wall," The Reporter read. "All one gets out of it is bulging eyes."
The largest sturgeon caught that year didn't crack 100 pounds, but Norman Baumhardt's 92-pound, 62-inch fish was still impressive given the circumstances.
More sturgeon spearing history: From bottom-feeder to record-breaker: These sturgeon set records when speared in Lake Winnebago system
Conditions improved over the next few years, including a large harvest of 1,251 sturgeon in 1972, but fell under bad luck again in 1973, when the eight-fish harvest tied with 1969's.
This time, poor water clarity warned the spearers of a questionable season ahead of time, after a January thaw invited algae to bloom in the lake, according to archives. For a 27-day season, however, they were hopeful for a cold snap and a snowstorm to clear the waters.
As the season went on, water clarity remained at an average of 7 feet and cracks hindered travel, but a few determined souls still found success.
In the end, it went down in history as one of the worst seasons for the spearers, but one of the best for the sturgeon, who had a better chance to live and breed for another year.
"If fishermen are disgusted with this year's results, conservationists are openly gleeful," The Reporter read Feb. 23, 1973.
After the season ended, rumors arose that not even all eight fish were captured from Lake Winnebago, but rather illegally harvested elsewhere and brought to a registration station to make the spearer eligible for one of the prizes that were advertised in the season.
The DNR investigated the rumors, but there was no concrete evidence to indicate they were true. While they found a boat under the Shawano dam with possible blood stains on it, that still wasn't enough, since they wouldn't be able to prove a sturgeon came from the dam even if the blood turned out to be a sturgeon's.
"Tavern talk is only hearsay," they concluded.
Those two years have retained the record for lowest harvests ever since, long overshadowed by the successful seasons of the early 2000s.
More recently, Lake Winnebago's season has lasted the full 16 days since 2016, and while 2017, 2020 and 2024 have fallen on bad luck, they still haven't topped 1969 or 1973.
More history: It happened this week
Feb. 10, 1966: Sudden mild weather and a two-day rainfall caused the Fond du Lac River to overflow around its ice, severely flooding several blocks of the city. Giddings & Lewis Machine Tool Co. closed temporarily due to damage, and parish members of St. Paul's Cathedral worked all night to protect the church's new $58,000 organ from damage.
Feb. 16, 1970: The Goodrich High School Band and its director Calvin Moely were stranded overnight in Eau Claire due to a bus malfunction after a weekend clinic and competition. After an impromptu midnight jazz concert for the gas station attendant that waited with them, the students were able to get a ride back to the Eau Claire University campus, where they spent the night on the floor of the student center, joking that Friday the 13th's bad luck had followed them into the weekend.
Feb. 10, 1981: The Soo Line Railroad shops in North Fond du Lac announced 81 layoffs due to a decline in railroad traffic and customer demand. Many of the layoffs affected the mechanical department and the freight car repair area.
Feb. 14, 1991: Capt. Warren Leback of the U.S. Maritime Administration in Washington, D.C., visited fourth grade classes at Evans Elementary School in honor of their Adopt-a-Ship program, where American merchant flag ships are paired with interested classes for back-and-forth correspondence with mariners at sea. He was joined by Capt. Douglas L. Lloyd, regional maritime program specialist, and Capt. James Robinson, master of the school's adopted ship, the S.S. Elizabeth Lykes.
Remember when ..." is a bi-weekly column from Streetwise Reporter Daphne Lemke that looks back at businesses of Fond du Lac's storied past. Tell her what you'd like to see next by emailing dlemke@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Fond du Lac Reporter: Two years are tied for smallest sturgeon spearing harvest in Wisconsin
