There have been 797 individuals registered for the particular sturgeon fishing season on Michigan’s Black Lake this previous Saturday. It solely took 17 minutes for anglers to succeed in the cap of seven sturgeon landed, which is a brand new document, in response to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.
Often called “Michigan’s shortest fishing season,” the annual occasion on Black Lake permits every angler to reap one sturgeon, both with a spear or a hook-and-line. The DNR then takes samples from the harvested fish and makes use of this information to assist observe sturgeon restoration and conservation efforts. The earlier document was 36 minutes, set in 2022.
“It was a banner day of Black Lake sturgeon fishing for an amazing fish, and everybody was happy with their catches,” says Jay Woideroski, a lifelong sturgeon fisherman and the president of the 200-member Black Lake Chapter of Sturgeon for Tomorrow. “Not everybody who was registered to fish Black Lake sturgeon this 12 months was on the ice that morning — however there have been loads of fish.”
The primary sturgeon was speared simply three minutes after the season opened at 8 a.m. The DNR credit Gavin Inexperienced with that fish, which measured 43.5 inches lengthy and weighed simply over 18 kilos. The second fish got here two minutes later, and the others have been fast to observe. The seventh sturgeon was registered by textual content with the DNR at 8:17 a.m.
“Each fisherman should ship DNR a textual content once they spear and land a sturgeon … and when the seven fish restrict is reached, the DNR instantly texts all registered anglers,” Woideroski tells Outside Life.
The largest sturgeon speared throughout the particular season weighed 78.3 kilos and was caught by Wisconsin angler Austin Dreifuerst. Woideroski explains that there was no dimension restrict for speared sturgeon this 12 months.
“That is executed so when an angler spears a fish, that’s it,” Woideroski says. “One and executed.”
Woideroski has been actively concerned with sturgeon restoration. He says Black Lake, together with close by Mullet Lake and Burt Lake, are strongholds for the fish, however that the DNR continues to be actively stocking sturgeon in these waterbodies, which all feed into Lake Huron.
“The sturgeon stocking and tagging program is great and [it’s] paying off.”
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Woideroski provides that though Mullet and Burt are recognized for larger sturgeon than Black Lake, the inhabitants at Black is robust sufficient to help restricted harvest. These populations are actively monitored by the DNR.
“They figured seven fish was a very good restrict, and there have been loads of mature fish out there,” Woiderski says. “I had a good friend who noticed 30 sturgeon from his ice shanty simply earlier than the season opened. However opening morning none got here by quickly sufficient for him to spear one for this 12 months.”
The 17-minute fishing season ended with a ceremony, the place Woideroski introduced Austin Dreifuerst with a trophy for his 78.3-pounder.
“[Dreifuerst] was topped the 2025 Black Lake Sturgeon Shivaree King,” he says.” We’ve a competition for that sturgeon fishing day we name the ‘Shivaree’. It’s our native title for a type of farm or barn celebration, which is ideal, as a result of we’re all ‘shivareeing’ when ice fishing.”
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