A new year brings new seasons and outdoor opportunities. In years past I have penned a roadmap with an outdoor calendar “To-Do List,” with walleye fishing being the first item on the list and the qualifier of “weather permitting.” Every time I can haul the boat down to the open water of the Mississippi River I feel like I am stealing a day from winter, thus getting me one day closer to spring. The walleye season started a little early for me because I bagged an archery buck. That means that I reallocated those late season archery outings towards other activities and on one particular day I was able to go walleye fishing.

Even though it wasn’t technically the new year, I did consider it a new season. It was a welcome event in that my hope was that it would lead to some nice walleye fillets and eventually a beer-batter garage fish fry. I think I have the best smelling garage in the neighborhood on Friday nights. On this particular day, late in the year, there were only a smattering of boats on the water. I decided to ease further upriver to find out how many of my walleye fishing brothers and sisters had the same thought process that I did.

As I rounded the starboard tip of the dam island, I saw only a few dozen boats. Most were high and right and if you have ever fished down there you know exactly what I mean. I slipped into some vacated water and started fishing.

To make this story shorter, I caught enough walleyes and saugers for a fish fry, but the signature event happened when I hooked the biggest fish of the day. When I set the hook I knew that I wasn’t dealing with a pan-sized walleye. The 6-pound test line on my rod and reel were stressed almost to the breaking point when I finally laid eyes on a mysterious fish, one that has been around since the dinosaurs: the lake sturgeon.  

A lake sturgeon is a very interesting specimen. Depending on what online search you stumble across, the fish can live to be 100 years old or more. Some of the largest fish recorded have pushed the scales to almost 200 pounds. Female sturgeon mature and will start spawning at around age 25 and then every 4-5 years. Males mature and begin spawning at/around 15 years of age. 

In a related matter, there are only two places in the United States that have a sturgeon spearing season. Lake Winnebago in eastern Wisconsin is one location and the most notable with a long and illustrious history. The other is in Black Lake, Mich., which has a very short and restrictive season, sometimes only lasting hours. I bring this up as a sneak preview as it is my hope to take part of the Winnebago season next month.

When the lake sturgeon I hooked was laying alongside the boat I quickly reached down and grabbed the fish by the tail. I’ve caught lake sturgeon before, but I don’t ever recall getting one in the boat for a photo, so I was thrilled to finally get the chance. To be fair, it was only a 30-inch fish and on a guess it only weighed 6 or 7 pounds but compared to a 14-inch sauger it was a monster and certainly more fun to catch. 

I slipped the young sturgeon back into the Mississippi River and with the slap of its tail it was gone. It was really neat getting my hands on a creature from the depths of history and lore. Here’s hoping that next month I can do it again on Lake Winnebago with that one being 30 times bigger.

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