School administrators likely pondered whether to change Warren Nelson’s absence Feb. 10 from “illness” to “unexcused” when learning the boy speared a sturgeon that morning on Lake Winneconne during the Upriver Lakes’ 16-day season.
That’s all right, of course. Most Wisconsinites get it. We’d have to look long and hard to find a hunter, trapper or angler who never skipped school at least once when the outdoors beckoned.
Warren’s success couldn’t be kept secret, coming just 10 days after he turned 12, the minimum age for holding a Wisconsin sturgeon-spearing license. Soon after his father helped him haul the 63.6-pound, 62.5-inch fish out of the water, Warren became a minor celebrity around Winneconne.
He had accomplices, of course. Aiding that effort was his father, Cody, and grandfather, Doug Nelson, who posted videos of the action on their Facebook pages for Woodeye’s Bar & Grill and the Wolf River Resorts, https://www.facebook.com/woodeyesbar/videos/1634667760757734 and https://www.facebook.com/WolfRiverWinneconne/videos/1002799708422897.
Warren’s feat is unusual for anyone too young to drink legally. Unlike Lake Winnebago, where youths can buy a spearing license if their 12th birthday is between Nov. 1 and the last day of the season, Upriver Lakes spearers must apply for one of 500 coveted tags for lakes Poygan, Winneconne and Butte des Morts. With over 9,000 people applying for that privilege or buying a preference point annually, it usually takes nine years to draw one. And because spearers must be at least 12 to apply for a permit, most Upriver Lakes spearers are 21 or older.
Warren Nelson, 12, speared this lake sturgeon Feb. 10 with help from his father, Cody, center, and grandfather, Doug, on Lake Winneconne. Warren hauled it in during the 16-day sturgeon spearing season in east-central Wisconsin. — Doug Nelson photo
So, how did Warren get his permit? Wisconsin allows those holding permits for elk, bear, wolf, fisher, bobcat, spring turkey, sharp-tailed grouse or Upriver Lakes sturgeon to transfer it to a minor, disabled person, Purple Heart recipient or active-duty military member.
Warren Nelson is a minor, obviously, and he has connections. His grandfather heard from a friend that a Milwaukee man had an Upriver Lakes permit but couldn’t use it. The man, Tom Burzynski, 60, is a retired fisheries technician who worked for the Department of Natural Resources, and often helps DNR staff at sturgeon-registration stations on Lake Winnebago. Doug Nelson called Burzynski, and Burzynski agreed to give Warren his permit.
And so it was that Warren had a sturgeon tag while sitting with his father in their spearing shack on Lake Winneconne when the season opened Feb. 8, a week after he turned 12. They set up their spearing shack in about 7 feet of water, and though visibility was only 6 feet in the murky water, they figured they should see anything swimming through.
Doug Nelson, meanwhile, also had a permit and set up nearby in his darkened shack. Neither Doug nor Warren had luck opening day, but Doug speared a sturgeon the next day about 10 a.m. After verifying he solidly speared the 30-pound fish, Doug yelled for his grandson to run over and help.
“Warren and I fought the fish a bit and he helped pull it out, so he got some experience,” Doug said. “That allowed me to fill my tag and go sit with them.”
On Monday, they resumed their hunt from Cody’s shanty, each taking a seat over the refrigerator-sized hole in the ice. Once again, right around 10 a.m., a sturgeon swam toward Doug Nelson, and he positioned one of their big spears directly over the fish for Warren. Just as the sturgeon’s head disappeared under the ice below Doug’s chair, Warren lifted the spear and threw it as hard as he could into the fish. They weren’t sure how well he hit it, so Cody sunk a second spear into the fish’s midsection to ensure it didn’t shake loose.
Before Cody could focus on helping Warren fight the fish, Doug had him activate his smartphone’s video camera to record all the splashing, thrashing and futile gaffing efforts. A minute later, the sturgeon was out of the hole, through the door and onto the ice outside as Warren broke into a celebratory dance.
Amazingly enough, no one cursed throughout the exciting video Doug Nelson recorded. Nope, not even Warren.
Doug said Warren’s sturgeon was the third time a young family member speared a sturgeon after receiving a transferred permit. Doug’s son-in-law, Andy “Woodeye” Woods, helped when his nephew, Alex Woods, 13, speared a 49-pound sturgeon in February 2018. Just two weeks earlier, Alex’s grandfather transferred his tag to him before dying of cancer.
And in 2019, Doug’s grandson Ian Woods, Woodeye’s son, speared a 60-pound sturgeon at age 12 with a transferred tag. Doug said a man simply walked into Critter’s Wolf River Sports shop in Winneconne before the season, hoping to find a youngster to use his tag. Ian Woods was happy to oblige.
It’s possible that Warren — at 12 years, 10 days old — is the youngest person to ever spear a sturgeon on the Upriver Lakes. Margaret Stadig, the DNR’s chief sturgeon biologist on the Winnebago System, said she’s often asked about 12-year-olds spearing sturgeon, but hasn’t compiled a spread sheet listing their birthdates.
If or when she does, she said she “can almost guarantee it would come down to days when determining the youngest.”
Stadig, however, recalls a girl who turned 12 on Feb. 9, two days before the 2023 season opened on Lake Winnebago. The girl then speared a sturgeon on Wisconsin’s largest inland lake sometime during the season.
Stadig added that the oldest successful spearer this year on the Winnebago System was John Worm, 88, who got a 93-pound, 69.1-inch sturgeon Feb. 10. Stadig called that feat “absolutely incredible.” In 2009, 91-year-old Alered Schumacher speared a big sturgeon, making him the cover boy for Wisconsin’s 2010 spearing regulations pamphlet.
Despite visibility that averaged only 5.35 feet on Lake Winnebago, the spearing seasons on the Winnebago System lasted the full 16 days without triggering harvest caps. That’s nine straight years Lake Winnebago didn’t close early, but only the fourth time since 2016 that the Upriver Lakes stayed open throughout. The Upriver Lakes’ season also ran the full 16 days in 2017, 2020 and 2024, primarily because poor ice limited travel for spearers.
The final tallies for this year were 617 sturgeon on Lake Winnebago, with 55 fish weighing 100 pounds or more; and 326 sturgeon on the Upriver Lakes, with eight weighing at least 100 pounds.
The combined total of 943 sturgeon more than doubled the 432 taken in 2024. First-time spearer Haley Herzig got the season’s largest sturgeon, 180.5 pounds.
The biggest sturgeon ever taken on the Winnebago System was a 212.2-pound, 84-inch female. Ronald Grishear of Appleton speared that leviathan on opening day of Lake Winnebago’s 2010 season.