#10MinuteTalk - Sturgeon Spearing - Wisconsin's Coolest Tradition

Vortex Nation Podcast

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4.9 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 8 February 2022

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Sturgeon spearing is an ultra-unique fishery on Wisconsin’s Lake Winnebago system. Longtime outdoor writer, Navy man, Wisconsin native and friend of Vortex, Pat Durkin, spearheads this interesting conversation all about the practice. We cover its roots, spearing tactics, and the sense of community surrounding it that’s larger than the fish themselves…And these fish are pretty big.

Transcript

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0:00.0	What is up, everybody? I have the esteemed Eric Barber to my right. And across from us,
0:08.7	we have Wisconsin native long time, long time outdoor columnist, outdoor writer, Navy
0:15.5	man, Mr. Pat Durkin. And we're going to talk about a topic today, a very unique fishery,
0:23.2	I guess you could say. And that is the Wisconsin sturgeon, spearing season. So yes, to spearhead
0:31.7	this conversation, Pat, welcome. Thank you. So it's fun coming down. Did I get died? I'll
0:38.0	actually I'm going to follow up my intro there with this is not your first time on the podcast,
0:42.9	Pat. We've had Pat here before. Very interesting history, life story, all the good stuff. So if
0:50.1	you didn't listen to that one, dial back the clock of time, give it a listen. It's a good one.
0:55.3	Pat, did I miss anything though? Anything important? We'll be fine. We'll get there. So Wisconsin
1:02.4	sturgeon, spearing. One thing I find interesting about this season is that we have a sparing season.
1:08.7	We don't have a hook and line season. Well, we do in and put a few rivers in the rivers.
1:14.5	Okay, but not in the for some reason. Yeah, I never have gotten into the politics of all that,
1:19.2	but apparently the people of the of the Winnebago area, the Ashkosh area, where the Winnebago
1:24.8	system is, they would have had the option at one point to have a hook and line season, but
1:29.4	they just decided to stick with the sparing season, which is now I think about 80 years old,
1:33.9	where it's been regulated for 80 years. Yeah, I was in my sheet here, the one notable thing
1:39.0	that I highlighted. It says the Lake Winnebago or the first modern sturgeon sparing season on Lake
1:45.3	Winnebago occurred during the winter of 1931. Yeah, that's a long time. Yeah. When I was thinking
1:53.4	about it earlier, too, I was like, Oh, man, like I find it interesting. Like you said, there's
1:57.3	hook and line seasons elsewhere, but there there's not. And I've always, I was like, Oh, I'm surprised
2:01.9	they don't have a conventional tackle season. I'm like, Well, actually, maybe the spear is the most
2:06.4	conventional of right. That's the OG of yeah, pulling fish from the water. Yeah, very cool. Pat,
	...

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