Out on the Ice

So after reading a different thread about ice racing, I was going to post these pictures but decided to start a new thread.

I was out on the ice on Saturday, too, but nothing to do with cars. I was doing something that most on here have probably never heard of: Sturgeon Spearing. My wife is not from the area so this was her first time out sturgeon spearing. Here she is have a good time:

You enjoy eating sturgeon? I've heard mixed reviews.

Basically, we need more of them and I'd feel bad killing one then not wanting to eat it.

I've actually never tried it... I don't even remember a chance to have it. My dad spent 10 years of my childhood looking into one of these green holes and he never saw one. Never. 10 years.

The sturgeon are well studied and watched here. Even during spawning, the DNR and different sportsmen clubs get volunteers to watch the sturgeon 24 hours a day to keep people from harassing them in the shallow waters.

Pike spearing is popular here in Michigan. Do you use a decoy when spearing sturgeon? What type fish did you see?

Must not be a lot to do in that part of the world...

In reply to pilotbraden:

Yes, there are a couple of brightly colored woodened decoys. Mostly some bluegill and some other small pan fish.

1988RedT2 wrote: Must not be a lot to do in that part of the world...

Well when it got to 11°F on Saturday it felt like a heat wave, so sitting in a shack and have some fun conversions was a nice way to 'get outside'!

Ah up in Lake Winnebago WI, are ya? I learned about this tradition while at Road America one Summer. One of the local denizens actually gave me a book called "The People of the Sturgeon", which detailed the history behind the Sturgeon hunt.

Judging by the images in the book, alcohol is the main ingredient used in Sturgeon spearing! I swear there wasn't a picture in that book without someone holding a beer. Who would've thunk it.......people like beer in Wisconsin?

I can honestly say, the four of us in this particular shanty had no alcohol with us. We were probably the only ones out of the 10k plus licenses.

I grew up only a couple miles north of Lake Winnebago.

Joe Gearin wrote: Ah up in Lake Winnebago WI, are ya? I learned about this tradition while at Road America one Summer. One of the local denizens actually gave me a book called "The People of the Sturgeon", which detailed the history behind the Sturgeon hunt. Judging by the images in the book, alcohol is the main ingredient used in Sturgeon spearing! I swear there wasn't a picture in that book without someone holding a beer. Who would've thunk it.......people like beer in Wisconsin?

alcohol is the primary ingredient in any form of ice fishing- it's more important than the auger used to drill the holes.. i know people that go out on the ice as soon as it will hole their truck and don't come back to shore until they run out of either beer or propane..

10 years of staring at the same hole and getting nowhere, sounds familiar.