Outdoors

Hook and line sturgeon season opens today

MADISON, Wis. - The 2026 hook and line season for lake sturgeon will be open on certain waters from today through Sept. 30.

All anglers looking to harvest a lake sturgeon must have their general 2026 fishing license and a valid hook and line lake sturgeon tag. Licenses and tags may be purchased online through Go Wild or from a license vendor.

Only one sturgeon with a minimum length measurement of 60 inches may be harvested during the season. Anglers who have harvested a lake sturgeon must validate their tag immediately upon harvesting and before moving it.

All harvested sturgeon must be registered at a designated registration station. Most registration stations are not open 24/7, so if anglers plan on harvesting a lake sturgeon outside registration station hours, they must be prepared to keep their fish on ice.

A hook and line sturgeon tag is not required if an angler plans to release the sturgeon they catch in the open season.

Please note that it is illegal to fish by snagging, foul hooking and attempting to hook fish other than in the mouth. Sturgeon may only be targeted in waters with an open hook and line season, even if anglers intend to release their catch.

Some sturgeon may be tagged near their dorsal fin. Please leave the tag attached to the fish if released. Tags provide the Department of Natural Resources with information about movement and growth of lake sturgeon.

If a tagged sturgeon is caught, please submit the following information to the county’s fisheries biologist to help the DNR in future management practices:

-- Where the fish was caught (county, waterbody and location).

-- The date of the catch.

-- Tag number, color and material composition of the tag (i.e., metal or plastic).

-- Overall fish length.

SEASON FORECAST

Low water levels across Wisconsin may make boat navigation difficult for anglers.

The lower Menominee River is expected to provide good catch and release action, and the open portions of the upper Menominee River will also have plenty of fish available, with a few sturgeon reaching the 60-inch length limit.

Anglers will have a great opportunity to catch sturgeon from shore in the tailwaters of almost all the dams on the Flambeau River, except in the fish refuges downstream of the Turtle-Flambeau Flowage and Upper Park Falls Flowage dams. Sturgeon will also likely be found in any of the eight impoundments from Park Falls to the Chippewa River.

Anglers should be aware of non-typical flow conditions in the Flambeau River below the four hydroelectric dams near Park Falls while discharge is temporarily routed through the spillways, not the powerhouse turbines.

Anglers should have quite a bit of action fishing for lake sturgeon on the lower Chippewa River. There are plenty of juvenile fish in the stretch of river near Eau Claire and a good number of sublegal adults upriver all supported by natural reproduction. Legal sized lake sturgeon inhabit all six of the lower Chippewa River impoundments, so there is ample opportunity to hook a legal lake sturgeon in west-central Wisconsin.

Yellow Lake in Burnett County continues to provide a trophy lake sturgeon fishery, with many sturgeon in the 40 to 60-inch range. It’s possible some anglers could reel in a sturgeon over 70 inches. Anglers should be on the lookout for yellow dangler tags on the dorsal fin of lake sturgeon in Yellow Lake. Often covered in algae, these tags contain a five-digit number that anglers should report to DNR fisheries biologist Craig Roberts at Craig.Roberts@wisconsin.gov or 715-416-0351. Anglers may need to clean the tag to read the number and should leave the tag on the fish.

Biologists predict large numbers of juvenile and adult sturgeon will be caught in the Wisconsin River if water levels remain low, as conditions will likely be ideal for targeting lake sturgeon.

Anglers can find more information at https://dnr.wisconsin.gov/topic/Fishing/sturgeon/SturgeonInlandFishery.