Two "White" Sturgeon Speared

Two white sturgeons were speared during the 2009 Winnebago system sturgeon spearing season.  Joseph Gerbyshak of Crivitz and Sue Muetzelburg of Fond du Lac harvested the rare fish, both on the same day.

According to Ron Bruch at the WI DNR, a white sturgeon in the Winnebago system is a Lake Sturgeon which has a light color pigment.  These are not related to the white sturgeon strain of fish found on the west coast, nor are these fish considered an albino.  Ultimately the white sturgeon on Winnebago is due to the genetics of the fish, rather than environmental factors.

The WI Dnr has determined that 1 out of 10,000 fish will have these white characteristics.  Ron also indicated that the color differences on sturgeon can vary in up to 20 different pigments.  “Some are black, some are gray, some are yellow” he said, “with white being the rarest color.”    The white sturgeon has a very slow growth rate compared with its cousins.

To date, the largest sturgeon speared on the system was 168.8 pounds out of Lake Poygan.   This is the largest Sturgeon ever speared out of that lake, and is the largest sturgeon ever speared by a woman.  When the DNR examined the fish they determined there were over 2,000,000 eggs inside of the fish.  Those eggs accounted for 37% of the fish’s body weight or nearly 63 pounds. 

Myfishingpartner.com is attempting to get photos of the white sturgeon and will post them once received.