SHERWOOD, Wis. — With just about 30 minutes left until opening for the day, the staff at The Outpost Pub & Provisions were busy getting ready to greet customers.
The Sherwood business is one of many around Lake Winnebago that sees an uptick in business in mid-February during sturgeon spearing.
“Absolutely the busiest two weeks out of the year. Sturgeon spearing ends at noon so everybody is looking to get some lunch,” said Managing Partner Chris Fiedler. “They usually spear with groups of people around the lake and they meet up at certain spots to talk about their fish stories. ‘Did you see anything?’ ‘How’s the clarity?’ That kind of stuff. That will impact our business for the next couple of weeks.”
While he still expects a strong opening weekend, Fiedler is not sure what the rest of the season could look like.
“We’ll have people opening weekend, but the following week, which would normally be very busy, will probably be pretty slow unless we get some cold weather to get them out on the ice,” he said.
The two-week season on the Lake Winnebago system opens on Feb. 10. It has a roughly $4 million dollar impact in areas around the lakes.
A mild winter and a warm forecast ahead could make this year look a little different than most. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources said the changing weather is bringing unsafe ice conditions on bodies of water around the state.
Cory Van Vonderen of Fish Tales, a bait, tackle and coffee shop in Oshkosh, said what happens in the coming weeks is all based on the weather and ice conditions.
“If the next 10 days are warm, we’re obviously going to lose it. We’ve still got a halfway decent base out there. If it would turn cold, we could salvage it,” he said. “But it’s starting to get wet. Once it starts getting saturated it’ll start to honeycomb. Then it’s just not safe.”
Van Vonderen said some people are already making arrangements for the conditions.
“Some of the sturgeon guys, they’ll be out there no matter what. They’ll not be able to drive their trucks or pull their big shacks out,” he said. “I’ve talked to a couple guys already who bought pop-ups. That’s what they’ll be using because they have no other choice.”
Fiedler said the outpost stays busy year-round, but the two-week season is a welcome bonus on the books.
“We’ve been here nine-and-a-half years and we haven’t had a year like this that’s been this poor. It’s going to be very interesting to actually see the fallout,” he said. “We’re always pretty busy anyway, but it’s always nice to have that impact of thousands of spearers out on the lake coming in and stopping in. Even one beverage is a big game changer for everybody.”