Friday, January 1st, 2010
SPEARING STURGEON
BY JENNIFER L.W. FINK / PHOTOGRAPHS BY PATRICK FLOOD
WAITING ROOM Fishermen at Lake Winnebago patiently wait for sturgeon to bite
THE LAKE STURGEON IS A MONSTER OF A fish. It’s a prehistoric, bony-plated relic that’s considered rare in most places—except Wisconsin. Just south of Appleton, Lake Winnebago and its connecting rivers and lakes are home to the world’s largest population of these bottom-feeding dinosaurs. They’re also the site of a truly unique spectacle: sturgeon spearing.
Each February, the waterways sprout a host of shanties as fishermen flock to the area in hopes of spearing one of the giant creatures. The structures vary from basic (four walls, an open floor and a hole in the ice) to downright luxurious (gas stove, satellite TV, generator and radio).
The equipment is as primitive as the fish it’s meant to spear. Imagine an old-fashioned pitchfork attached to a six- to nine-foot pole—that’s a sturgeon spear. Bait consists of creative lures, dangled in the water to attract the naturally curious fish.
“One guy swears by a pumpkin,” says Bill Jenkins, an 82-year-old resident of Pipe, Wis. “Another guy I know uses an old five-buckle overshoe. The real old timers used an ear of corn. I’ve got a decoy about 16 inches long with a set of deer horns on it. Everybody’s got their own thing.”
However, success depends less on tools and more on patience and persistence. “Some guys have been here 10 to 11 years and have never seen a fish,” Jenkins says. Yet, each year, approximately 1,500 sturgeon, some weighing close to 180 pounds, are pulled from the lake.
While Johnson attributes sturgeon spearing’s popularity to the taste of the fish and, especially, its eggs, most spearers just want to participate in an ancient ritual in one of the last places where it is still performed.
