Pond Boss Forums FISH & FISHING Show off your catch Sturgeon through the ice

Not my catch, but a guy from Wisconsin who writes for me.

62 inches and 45 pounds speared through a 4'x2' hole cut into three foot thick ice. He was about 14 feet down in 21 feet of water. Actually considered smallish, the biggest one on this lake this year was 76 inches and 155 pounds.
Maybe some of you are aware of this type of fishing, but I wasn't.

I've never speared through the ice but I bet I'd like it.

Must have long spear to spear a fish 14 feet down!

Cecil, some are made completely out of iron/steel and the sheer weight drives them into the fish.

Bullhead, what lake? They spear esox too I believe.

There is a pretty big collectors market in fish spearing decoys. I have a couple sitting here on a shelf.

I didn't thing of that Scott. Makes sense.

Cecil, the only way I knew that was from seeing them on the collectors market.

I'm not sure what lake. He lives by Oshkosh so I would assume it is somewhere around there.

My guess would be Lake Winnebago. I used to go White Bass fishing at Winneconne.

This year the sturgeon spearing is open on Lake Winnebago and the upper river lakes. It is open ever year on Lake Winnebago and every couple of years on the upper river lakes. See
http://dnr.wi.gov/topic/Fishing/sturgeon/SturgeonLakeWinnebago.html

I started collecting fish decoys when I was a kid. They always had them for sale at the Eastern Shore Waterfowl Festival along with the waterfowl decoys. The antique ones were way out of my price range but the newer ones were amazing art work. I think I have about 20 or so now.

Here is a great article on spearfishing from the NYT. I hadn't heard of it until I read this several years ago:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/30/travel/escapes/30dark.html

The photos tell the story pretty well:

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/01/28/travel/escapes/0130-dark_index.html

CJ, how about some of those old waterfowl decoys? They can bring some $$ if they are in good condition and are old.

A friend of mine is big into collecting them. He's probably got 20K in them which is nothing compared to some collections. Insane how much people will spend on a beat up old decoy. But if it made by the right person, wow!

CJ, I've known single decoys to be well in the 6 figure range.

Your right tho, certain carvers, conditon all are the key things. The highest priced ones are typically from the market hunting time.