SHIOCTON, WI (WTAQ) – Spring has sprung with a busy sturgeon spawning run around the Wolf River’s Bamboo Bend in Shiocton. WTAQ visited the popular spawning site Wednesday morning.
The prehistoric fish were piling up, thrashing in the water, and floating on the rocks close enough to touch as they made their way upriver for spawning season.
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Some people might shrug at the idea of watching fish migrate. Others, like Peter Flucke of Ashwaubenon, were fascinated.
“What’s amazing to me is just how old they are. They were here long before we were, right?” Flucke said. “It’s hard to kind of get your head around it. They’re right there under the water, the water’s murky, it’s hard to tell just how big they are. So when the DNR is doing the tagging for the protection, it’s also huge education thing…They’re an amazing resource in that they just deserve to be able to you know live their lives like like we do.”
His wife wanted to head back to the car, but he just couldn’t get enough. Then again, he has a background in natural resources and spent some of his springs in college warding off poachers around this exact bend about 30 years ago.
“I was like ‘are you kidding me!?’ There are so many of them and they’re all different shapes and sizes, you can see when they’re spawning, when they’re fertilizing the eggs, and the process is just – it’s been going on for thousands and thousands of years,” Flucke said. “We take it for granted because we have spearing season and spawning in the spring, but this is one of the few places in the world where this occurs and it’s 20 miles down the road for us.”
Sturgeon pile up near the shoreline during the annual sturgeon spawning run on the Wolf River’s Bamboo Bend in Shiocton. (PHOTO: Casey Nelson, WTAQ News)
Wisconsin DNR Sturgeon Biologist Margaret Stadig was on site as well. She’s new to the area, but not the fish, having moved from Texas to take the job earlier this year. However, there’s one thing she’s not quite familiar with.
“This is the first time I’ve ever seen lake sturgeon actually spawn,” Stadig told WTAQ News. “Everywhere else that I know of outside of Wisconsin, they spawn in huge rivers, under the water, where you cannot see them unless you’ve got scuba diving gear…This is beyond any expectation I had for this job when I took it and moved to Wisconsin. I am just – I am floored.”
Stadig and her crew were netting the fish to gather information. Some of the sturgeon already had trackers, while the DNR placed trackers in new faces. Some of those new faces were estimated to be up to 80 years old.
“These guys are huge. We’re trying to get an estimation of the population, and to do that, we have to catch these fish. We measure them so we make sure their growth is appropriate, and we also got a sex on them to get an idea of how many males and females are in the system,” Stadig said. “But it’s also really good to tell the people how many fish are in the system, and it’s only because we manage them so appropriately.”
The DNR crew was assisted by students from Fox Valley Technical College as well. Stadig taught them how to communicate those measurements with their team.
DNR researchers netted sturgeon to obtain measurements during the annual spawning run on the Wolf River’s Bamboo Bend in Shiocton. Fish were then sent down a tarp back into the water. (PHOTO: Casey Nelson, WTAQ News)
Meanwhile, Leanne Fiestadt of Kaukauna was part of the crowd listening in as the researchers worked. Her first time out to see the spawn was with her husband’s grandfather and her daughter, years ago. On Wednesday, she was out with her daughter and grandkids of her own.
“We’ve been here before but never saw the amount of fish that they have here today – and the size of them is just huge! Every kid should be able to experience this, because it’s something that it’s just it’s very unique to us, I believe. It’s just a great experience,” Fiestadt said. “The lady down there did a very nice job of explaining what she was doing, explaining how many fish they catch, explaining how they look for them again next year. It’s also really interesting to watch them wrestle those fish, because some of them are very big.”
A visiting child gets up close and personal with sturgeon along Bamboo Bend on the Wolf River in Shiocton. (PHOTO: Casey Nelson, WTAQ News)
At one point, the kids observing the DNR research were allowed to get up close and personal, as Stadig let them touch one of the fish.
While Stadig says gathering information is important, but so is educating the public. She says the shared, generational interest in sturgeon is unlike anything she’s ever seen.
“I never expected this. I absolutely love this. We have families out here who, they’re not going to spear for sturgeon, but they’re here showing their kids, showing their grandkids – and the number of fish in the system,” Stadig said. “I love it when people get excited about the sturgeon. It’s that kind of interaction that we’re going to need if we’re going to continue to have them survive in the system for not just this generation, but the next generation and generations after…So the fact that mom, dad, grandpa, the kids are out here and you could see them on the rocks? Man, I don’t think you could wipe the smile off my face I’m so excited. It’s so good to see everyone else have that same amount of excitement.”
The spawning run is expected to continue into the weekend, but Stadig says getting out there sooner is better if you want to get the best of it.
A short video recap of the event will be added shortly.
