The Sturgeon Trail - Part 2

     Gary and I have been volunteering for years to patrol and guard the sturgeon that go upstream on the Wolf River system from Lake Winnebago, as part of a program run jointly by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and the volunteer organization Sturgeon for Tomorrow.  We almost always do a night guard in an isolated spot along the Wolf River.  We see very few people in those places.  We sit on lawn chairs, read, write, and talk as we sip our hot drinks and snack.  When one of us gets sleepy, its a short climb into the bed in the back of Gary's van.
     This year our scheduled patrol date of April 18 passed without the sturgeon spawning because of the cold temperatures.  We called the DNR to re-schedule, but because Gary has to leave on business, we had to agree to a day guard.  When we arrived at sturgeon camp at 6:00 a.m. yesterday, the "sturgeon general" told us that our favorite spots were all flooded.  There was no way we could go there. All that was left for us was the Sturgeon Trail on Highway X west of New London.  We were fed a hearty breakfast, given our 2011 caps, told to pack our lunches, and off we went.
     The Sturgeon Trail is the second busiest of the spawning sites.  Instead of sitting in comfortable lawn chairs, we mostly walked for miles up and down the trail, talking to hundreds of people. We were less guards than concierges, Gary said. We answered questions, some of them downright silly.  One of the elderly women wondered why we didn't put the sturgeon closer to the parking lot!
     Most of the complaints were about the lack of spawning.  At 7:00 a.m., nothing was going on. The females will not lay their eggs until the temperature in the water reaches 53 degrees.  Later on, things sped up and there was enough thrashing about to keep our voyeurs happy.  Most of their questions could be answered to pointing them to the informational signs along the trail.
     All anyone needs to know about sturgeon spawning, or for any other wildlife mating, is that it's like guys in a bar, males looking for females.  They will do anything to impress the ladies and that means they can be incredibly stupid. Some male sturgeon have been know to bash their brains in against the rocks.
     Most of the people were well behaved, though there were the parents who insisted on holding babies over the river so they could look down at the fish.  They didn't realize the strength of the current in the Wolf River.  One slip and that child would be gone.  It gave this grandmother the willies.
     Gary took a drive over to the city garage because it was listed on our directions.  There he found the DNR tagging fish and took photos with his cell phone.  I had to stay behind and was jealous because in all our years guarding, I had never seen this.  I stayed on the trail, but directed anyone with children to head over to the garage for the show.
     The Winnebago system has the only healthy population of sturgeon left in the world so people come from all over to watch the show. During a slow time, some folks from La Jolla, California stopped to talk. I was working on my blog.  They wondered if there was all that much happening in my life to fill a blog. I explained what I was doing and that I would be in California in July, telling stories and traveling.  No where near La Jolla though.
     Things got busier in the afternoon on the west end of the trail so I stationed myself there on a folding chair.  A Lutheran pastor from Iowa had brought a busload of his teenagers to see the show.
     Then came the highlight of my day.  The DNR crew showed up to net and tag sturgeon on our banks.  It was a simple operation but it required muscle.  They had to catch them then drag the monsters, some around 100 pounds, over to the staff that measured the thrashing sturgeon (longest 70 inches), inoculated them,tagged them with a sub dermal bar code, and recorded all the information. Some of the fish had been tagged years before by the older members of the crew.

      Dan Folz and Mike Penning were the  patriarchs of the crew having done this for over fifty years.  They started when Gary and I were just kids.  Dan is called Father Sturgeon.  He is so big that he looms over everyone.  One of the crew said they couldn't start without him and we would know he was there when the sun was blocked out.  In the old days, the crew tagged at night behind a bar.  A belligerent drunk came out to demand what they were doing and Folz stood up.  The drunk's head came up to his waders.  The guy went back into the bar.
     Dan and Mike told us that in the old days, the Lutheran minister from Seymour used to come out and help.  When they went back to their truck, they would find a gift from him in a bottle marked "film remover".  It contained Jack Daniels whiskey.  Reverend Lange was the minister in my church back then.  Whiskey?  I would never have thought it of him.
     By this time there were crowds of people watching, so when the DNR had a sturgeon, we all yelled "Incoming!" so no one would be knocked off the bank by a thrashing tail as the fish was brought over for its procedures.  The children were all wide eyed, watching this show. We could see future environmentalists in the making.
     And We'll be back next year, no question about it, but at a quieter spot.
     Anyone interested in the sturgeon guard should check  People of the Sturgeon: Wisconsin's Love Affair with an Ancient Fish, by Kathleen Schmitt Kline, Ronald M. Bruch, Frederick P. Binkowski, Bob Rashid.