For the third year in a row sturgeon spearing ends after a full 16-day season on Lake Winnebago.
Despite an increase in anglers out on the ice this year, the DNR says harvest numbers were below average.
As fishermen packed up and brought in their shanties from Lake Winnebago, many say they saw nothing more than cloudy water.
Tim Soda of Berlin says, "You can't go out in the middle where we usually go because the water's too dirty, we can only see ten feet out there."
According to the DNR, 12 sturgeon were harvested on the last day.
Much like a year ago, the harvest was far from the cap, with a total of 306 fish harvested on Lake Winnebago.
Ryan Koenigs says water clarity was a factor for most of the season.
He says, "We're back to similar to where we were at the beginning of the season, possibly even worse. So, spearers have been dealing with just dirty water."
But that didn't put a damper on Mark Marine's view of the annual tradition.
Spearing his first sturgeon in the last five minutes of the season.
Marine says "You get used to not seeing anything. And, when I saw this one, I was like, "holy cow, that's a fish!" I don't know, I can't believe it."
For those fishermen who were lucky and actually speared sturgeon this season, they say if there were more days with sunshine, they may have been able to spear even more sturgeon.
Soda says, "If maybe the sun would have shinned a little bit more, we maybe would of got a few more but did pretty good in this small area right here."
While, most leave empty-handed, the tradition remains alive for others, who will be back next year.
