Darn. Wished I had known about that a decade back. My fiancee's parents lived on Lake Winnebago. Not sure what they would have done if I dragged home a sturgeon, though. Only sturgeon I caught was in Wisconsin when I was a kid - no idea which lake, though.

There's pictures of an 11+ footer going around the Internet. Wonder how long that one has been around.

You're right thinking about this too deeply can bend the mind a bit. But just think a sturgeon that you release might be caught a century from now by one of your great-great-grandkids.

I worked in Shawano WI for an internship for a few months in college and was able to witness these things spawning in the shallows below the dam on the Wolf River first hand (upstream of where this fish was speared). It is something I never will forget with all those massive fish roaming the shallows. Putting the age of a fish like this in perspective really gets a person thinking. As far as the act of spearing a fish like this, I remember a quote from a guy that spears them - "Try laying on your back in your fireplace and looking up through the chimney, then try to shoot a duck as it flies by. This is what it is like to spear a sturgeon through the ice!"

Joe, I don't have enough fingers and toes but if my math is correct this fish is over 82 yrs old, right? What is the legal size/age and your estimate of age?
BTW, you mentioned marlin, is a sturgeon in the marlin family, I'm from the midwest and fish the rivers not the oceans?

Mind: Blown

They are just fish, but the human mind can go some pretty crazy places with the right inspiration. The crazy part is how many crazy places our mind can go, and how crazy some of those places are. I dig nature, man.

Funny thing is the people that "dig nature, man" just don't get it like we do. I mean we really dig it. Those tree huggers are missing out. I just pity the people that will never see, experience, or consider the things we as outdoorspeople are privy to.

I am not usually the kind of person to want to mount every big fish I catch but in this case, since it is basically hunting and death is a necassary part of the sport, it sure seems like a patriarch like this fish ought to have the honor of being mounted. P.s. Joe, I assume these fish are eaten? I guess it's a good time of the year to have lots of sturgeon steaks in the freezer.

What a shame that it was killed.

What a catch! My Dad was born in 1917 and just died the other year. He was 91 years old. My wife died over 2 years ago she was 52, we were married 33 years. I miss her very much. Why do you think this fish lived for about 100 years and was in the wrong place at the wrong time.I really think there is a reason for ice to cover water. It's to give the lake or pond or river time to recover. We are the caretakers of this planet. I hope we don't muck it up. P.S. I fish too, but always use caution and never in the Winter. I go hunting then to help fill my freezer. I'm not judging anyone, someone else is in charge of that. Good fishing and hunting, Chode E. from PA

this news is very shocking. Fate and a 212-Pound Sturgeon

ususally release large fish after catching them to go on breeding,and keep smaller fish for sonsumption but since this fish was speared that wouldn't be possible.
carte r4i