The 2015 sturgeon spearing season is now complete and I think this season will be looked upon fondly by many spearers. Today was by far the nicest weather of the season, which was a nice change from the very cold temperatures most of the last 7 days. An additional 136 sturgeon were harvested today, bringing the season total to 2,158 fish harvested during the season (1,870 from Lake Winnebago and 288 from the Upriver Lakes). The 1,870 fish harvested from Lake Winnebago ranks this season as the 6th highest harvest on record from the 1940-2015 harvest seasons[PDF]. That’s really pretty impressive when you consider that’s 75 spearing seasons, the majority of which had longer spearing days, no harvest caps, and seasons that were longer than 16 days. Coming into today, I was anticipating an increase in spearing effort and in turn an increase in harvest given that today was a Saturday. However, that was not the case and today’s harvest numbers were actually one of the lowest of any day this season. The season may be over, but our work at the DNR is just getting started. We will be cleaning up our registration stations this week and then get started on the data entry and report writing. I hope to have the spearing data entered and spearer list drafted within the next 2 weeks, but it will be quite time consuming given the number of fish harvested and other commitments that myself and staff have over the next couple of weeks. I will be sending out updates and summary reports as they become available over the next month or so. Thank you to all of the spearers out there for making 2015 a safe, successful, and enjoyable sturgeon spearing season. —- Ryan Koenigs, Winnebago sturgeon biologist

Hey Dale, Fishing was good between fronts Saturday afternoon. Bass were good on tip ups and jigging spoons along outside weed lines and mid lake humps. Crappie were hitting on jigging spoons tipped with a fat head minnow. They were hitting three feet from bottom in main lake basin. Key was keeping up with the school. If the stopped hitting within 5 minutes, move to the next hole. It was nice to be out in warmer temps as brief as it was. – Ken Husker O’Malley Huskeroutdoors Waterworks fishing team

(Head): Lots of great opportunities for walleyes, perch, crappies, bluegills and northerns in the central Wisconsin area. Most of the fish have come by targeting big open flats and channel edges for perch and crappies and shallow weeds for bluegills and northerns. The best advice for finding fish right now is to use your electronics to find suspended schools of panfish. Keep moving around and use your electronics to locate active feeding fish, don’t sit in one spot too long or you may miss out on better opportunities. Once you locate a school of fish or actively feeding fish set up and work the water column directly above. To find out if the fish are active you want to draw fish off the bottom and/or out of the school. Aggressive fish will move up out of the school or off the bottom to chase your presentation when they are ready to eat. For the northerns and walleyes, search out vast shallow weedy or stump filled bays. Set tip-ups at select locations that you have found by searching out the area with electronics. Once you have determined where you’re going to fish run your tip-ups baited with large golden shiners or medium sized sucker minnows about 1 to 3 feet off the bottom. In very weedy areas the preferred method is to run the baits right under the ice or about one foot above the weed-line.

Here is the updated fish report for Monday February 23rd Whitefish action continues to stay strong throughout the Door County Peninsula. Though, there have been some reports that the bite is a bit slower for some, but fishermen are starting to realize that you need to spread out and stay away from the big groups. When you do that, the fishing is still really good and the fish are less spooky. Areas that have been popular spots continue to be…Henderson’s Point, the deeper water out in front of Riley’s Bay, Larson’s Reef and pretty much all of the deep structure north of the Old Stone Quarry. A wide variety of jigs will work well for the Whitefish. Some of them are…Rapalas, Sweedish Pimples, Forage minnows and Kastmaster spoons just to name a few. And most fishermen are using a slider hook above their main jig which could be just a plain hook or dot jig. Tip your jigs with minnow pieces, wax worms, spikes and Gulp. Perch fishing is still classed as slow with very limited Good reports coming in. Now with that said, there are always a select few anglers and groups that manage consistent catches. The Perch fishing should get better as it usually does when we move into March and get closer to the spawn and the closing of the season. Areas to try would be the Chaudoir’s Dock area, Little Sturgeon, Riley’s Bay and some area in the Sturgeon Bay area. If you keep moving and spread out your tip ups to locate fish, you will have a better chance at catching a nice meal of fish. And when you do find some fish set up on top of them and jig with an assortment of jigs tipped with minnows, minnow heads or wax worms. Pike fishing has been going pretty well as of late. Areas to try would be Little Sturgeon, Riley’s Bay, Sturgeon Bay and to the north up in Egg Harbor and Ephraim. Spread out your tip ups and auto fishermen and suspend large golden shiners and suckers throughout the water column. Walleye action has been steady for this time of year. As most fishermen know, the best fishing is still ahead of us once we move deeper into March and the pre-spawn action kicks in. Areas to try would be along the Henderson’s Point shoreline, Riley’s Bay can be good at times, Sand Bay is a go-to spot and of course the vast structure along the northern Door County peninsula will hold a fair share of fish. The key once again is to stay away from large groups of fishermen if possible. The best jigs to have in the box are…the new Hali minnow jig, Rapalas, OddBall jigs, Puppet Minnows and Moonshine shiver minnows tipped with medium and large lake shiners Thanks; Lance LaVine Howie’s Tackle 1309 Green Bay Rd Sturgeon Bay, WI 54235 Ph: 920-746-9916

Minocqua Area Fishing Report: Though not as bad as last year, it’s been a cold February that has been keeping anglers off the ice and fishing tough when they do venture out. This final weekend of game fish season shows promise as temps look to get into the 20′s. Walleye, Northern Pike and Bass season ends at midnight Sunday! Northern Pike: Fair-Good. Action slowly increasing since last week. As expected mostly on tip-ups with large shiners or large suckers. A few anglers scored some nice pike, jigging Raps and Swedish Pimples (#5-#6) dressed with a minnow head in 8-12′ weeds. Yellow Perch: Best catches over mud in 18-30′ but bite is spotty. Wigglers on Hali’s & #2 Pimples. More action yet less average size in weeds of 6-12′ using Forage Spoons with waxies or medium Fats-Large Rosies. In the weeds, the larger perch have been bigger (11-12″) but few, lots of little perch (3-7″). Walleye: Fair. Best at dark and after. Golden Shiners and Lake shiners in weeds to 12′ on tip-ups. Off shore anglers using suckers and Lake shiners over 18-24′ humps surrounded by 40+ feet. Jigging spoons also effective. Crappies: Fair. A few anglers catching fish in bays on plastics or waxies. Best catches in these areas coming after dark using small rosie reds. Deep water action is best on rosies or crappie minnows from 3pm till dusk, along transition areas of mud / gravel in 17-24′. It’s been too cold for tip-downs so anglers have been resorting to setting up inside shacks. Bluegills: Fair. Best catches over deeper water, some in areas anglers typically fish for perch and crappies. In depths of 14-24′ over mud, anglers using Tungsten jigs to get moussees and spike down quickly. Around weeds, fish deeper at this time, 10-12′ edges for the better gills using rockers with waxies, Gulp waxies. Largemouth Bass: Poor. Cold temps slowing the bite. Use medium shiners on tip-ups for best action on warmer days. Hopefully the game fish season will end on a high note- the past two years have not. Check out the Carrol Lake Tourney, over $10,000 in prizes, food. Tourney is Sat. Feb. 28th, we’ll be opening the shop @ 5 am. that morning! Thanks, Kurt Island Sportshop Minocqua, WI

(Head): Northern and panfish hitting very well, with walleye action good, and largemouth bass continuing to hit northern and panfish setups ; all in the Eagle River, Wisconsin area. Ice conditions continue to improve along with travel in the Eagle River, Wisconsin area. Ice thickness runs from 10-18 inches on many lakes. There is still slush and snow on untraveled areas. Ice anglers are getting out by foot, snowmobiles, four-wheelers and some trucks (truck travel is recommended only for those who know a particular water/area/location inside-out- – caution is still very much in play). NORTHERN: Fish 12 feet of water or less off of break edges and remaining weeds. Use a medium to large shiner or northern sucker under a tip-up; or try a large jigging spoon. Focus on the upper of the water colum, as northerns eat and look up. All day action and the bite is good to excellent. PANFISH: Crappies, bluegills and perch are locating in two distinct areas. Fish mid-lake mudflats in 35 feet of water or less, concentrating on brush piles, rockpiles, and any contour changes (that can mean fishing a hump or a depression on a mudlfat- – fish can be in both locations). You can also fish break edges or adjacent weeds in 12 feet of water or less. Use a crappie minnow, waxie, spike, wiggler or micro-plastic on a small jig or under a slip bobber. Perch are tight to bottom, with crappies and gills suspending up and down the water column (day dependent). All day action and the bite is good to excellent. LARGEMOUTH BASS: Northern and panfish anglers are having their setups hit off-and-on by largemouth bass locating in 12 feet of warer or less in and around weeds. Mixed bag on sizes.