LAKE WINNEBAGO, Wis — (NBC 26)-- For the more than 10-thousand people who plan on spearing sturgeon this weekend it looks like ice conditions have finally shaped up, especially on Lake Winnebago’s north shore.
On Friday in the Village of Harrison, hundreds of sturgeon spearers found one of just a handful of locations on Lake Winnebago, where the ice is capable of holding trucks and their shanties.
"It was a little iffy about a week ago but the cold snap we had this week and everything else, it turned out good," says Andy Engel of the Lake Park Sportsmen’s Club.
Engel says on Friday there was about 12 to 16 inches of ice along the north shore of Lake Winnebago in Harrison. A luxury on the lake this year that he says that is bringing a lot more people to their landing compared to years past.
"Significantly more, a lot of other parts of the lake have shoves and just poor ice conditions."
According to the DNR ice should be four inches thick to walk on, five inches thick for a snowmobile to travel on and 12 to 15 inches thick for trucks. But when you have a payload like a SUV lugging around an ice shanty, unfortunately most spots outside of Lake Winnebago’s north shore won't be able to handle your weight, at not least yet.
"You'll have to call all the different fishing clubs because it varies so much across the lake right now," says Don Herman of the Otter Street Fishing Club in Oshkosh.
Herman says in Oshkosh near the Merrit Street landing the ice thickness is about nine inches thick. But when you venture out from there and start examining spots he says the thickness can vary from seven to 18 inches thick. That’s why in Oshkosh Herman says they're suggesting you leave your truck on shore, until it thickens up.
"This is fine for four wheelers and snowmobiles," says Herman.
So if you're a spearer and you don't know how you could manage the 16-day season without your truck, right now it appears there are at least a couple of spots to get out onto the lake.
Today there were trucks on Lake Winnebago at Paynes Point in Neenah and at Fire Lane Eight's landing in Menasha. Most trucks are not venturing out onto the lake at this point more than a mile or so according to fishing clubs we spoke with.
