Wolf River Sturgeon Spawning Update 4-24-09

Wolf River Sturgeon Spawning Update:

Sending this to you from our hotel in Shawano which has been the base of our sturgeon tagging operations for the last few days………….We have been tagging sturgeon all week at sites between Shawano and New London and have tagged to date around 700 fish at numerous sites while we were waiting for the fish to start spawning at the Shawano dam site.

The sturgeon finally started spawning below the Shawano dam late yesterday (Friday) evening. The warm temperatures yesterday finally pushed them to the point of spawning at the dam site. The fish have been spawning at sites further down river for the last 4 days or so. The big push at Shawano will likely be today and tomorrow and may be over by Monday or Tuesday there. There are still good numbers of fish to be seen at the Wolf River Sturgeon Trail (Cty Hwy X, New London), and at Bamboo Bend, Shiocton. The cold rainy weather forecast for the next few days may make the spawning period stretch out a couple extra days, but if you want to see fish I suggest going today or tomorrow to one of the three sites I listed above.

Today we will be attempting to take eggs for several sturgeon recovery projects in Tennessee, Georgia, and here in Wisconsin, and I will be conducting surgeries on about a dozen large females (150-200+ lb class) implanting 10 year sonic tags, so we can track the spawning migration patterns of these large females over the next 10 years.

Hope you get a chance to come out an see these fantastic fish.

Ron

Go to www.wolfrivercam.com to see these fish live with underwater cameras.