Sturgeon Season Ends In Minutes
Those who think Gulf red snapper seasons are short should check out the sturgeon season on Cheboygan County, Michigan’s Black Lake. More than 400 registered anglers showed up on the ice Saturday, Feb. 2 for a season that lasted only 78 minutes before the six-fish quota was met.
It hardly seems worth it, except to the lucky anglers who managed to bag a sturgeon. It’s one of the few sturgeon harvest opportunities available, and hook-and-line fishing as well as spearing the prehistoric fish are allowed.
With a heavy Michigan DNR presence on-hand and embedded within ice fishing communities, catches were tracked and anglers were notified of the season’s close by phone and text messages as well as with signal cannons, mortar rounds and fireworks.
The first four sturgeon harvested were males ranging from 52 to 60 inches, and 25 to 47 pounds. The final two fish were females ranging from 61 to 72 inches long, and 54 to 80 pounds. Three of the six fish taken had been captured before by Michigan State University and the DNR during spring spawning runs in the Black River. A harvested 56-inch male originally was captured in the 2009 spring spawning run. A 60-inch male had been captured and tagged during the 2004, 2010 and 2017 spawning runs. The largest fish, a 72-inch female, had been captured and tagged during the 2003, 2007 and 2012 spawning runs in the Black River