Green Bay News

GREEN BAY – Looking for a good book to read to pass the time during the bitter cold weather?  Librarian Molly Senechal of the Brown County Library put together a “mixed bag” of books to check out.

1. I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak

2. Isn’t It Romantic? An Entertainment by Ron Hansen

3. A Gracious Plenty by Sheri Reynolds

4. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

5. The Wet Nurse’s Tale by Erica Eisdorfer

To see this list and previous lists shared on the show, check out this page on the library’s website: As Seen on Good Day WI

LAKE PLACID, N.Y. (AP) – It’s been more than three decades since his landmark goal became the centerpiece of the U.S. Olympic hockey team’s Miracle on Ice. For 60-year-old Mike Eruzione, it still seems like only yesterday.

“It was a long time ago, but for me it’s different,” said Eruzione, whose game-winning goal against the Soviet Union in the medal round at the 1980 Lake Placid Winter Olympics still sends chills down an awful lot of spines. “I deal with it so often it’s hard to believe it’s been 35 years. Every week I’m doing something or going somewhere that’s associated with 1980.”

With his inimitable deft touch, Hall of Fame coach Herb Brooks guided Eruzione and his fuzzy-faced teammates, college kids matched up against one of the best teams in hockey history. On Feb. 22, they triumphed with an improbable comeback.

The U.S. defeated the Soviets 4-3 on Eruzione’s 30-foot shot midway through the third period to deprive them of what likely would have been their sixth gold medal in seven Winter Olympics, then clinched the gold by rallying past Finland 4-2.

“It doesn’t feel like yesterday,” said Buzz Schneider, a winger on the U.S. team and today involved in real estate in Minnesota. “But people remind me all the time. It’s just part of who we are, I guess.”

And it’s become a significant part of the legacy of Lake Placid. One of only three places to host a Winter Olympics twice (St. Moritz, Switzerland, and Innsbruck, Austria, are the others), Lake Placid has capitalized on its Olympic heritage in a big way. According to the New York State Olympic Regional Development Authority, which operates the winter sports venues in the region, nearly 2 million visitors, including thousands of youth hockey teams, go each year to this Adirondack Mountain village of 2,600.

It’s difficult to imagine life around here without that Olympic heritage, personified by Lake Placid-born speed skater Jack Shea. He was the first U.S. double gold medalist in Winter Olympic history, winning twice in 1932 after reciting the Olympic oath in his shining moment at those first Lake Placid Games.

“The Olympic name itself lives on,” said 80-year-old Jack LaDuke, who served as audio-visual director for the 1980 Winter Olympics. “People want to come to the Olympic village. They want to see where it happened. The Olympics itself is a big draw – the history of it.”

There is excitement in the air again. Every surviving member of the hockey team – rugged defenseman Bob Suter died at 57 in September and coach Brooks was killed in a car accident in 2003 at age 66 – is coming back for a “Relive the Miracle” reunion on Saturday night at Herb Brooks Arena, the hockey rink they made famous.

Eruzione, who works in alumni relations at Boston University, and several teammates also are hosting a five-day fantasy camp beginning March 29 that so far has attracted more than 50 participants. And NBC plans to anchor its “Hockey Day in America” coverage from Lake Placid on Sunday and feature the team.

When the U.S. won that hockey gold in 1980, it was a time of world strife. The Soviet army had just invaded Afghanistan as the Cold War simmered, a group of Americans was being held hostage in Iran, the U.S. economy was hurting and President Jimmy Carter already had announced a U.S. boycott of the Summer Olympics in Moscow.

The sociopolitical impact of that era has since faded. The memory of that February night in Lake Placid has not.

Never will.

“We were just coming off the Vietnam War and there was a lot of anti-nationalistic mood and rhetoric in this country,” said Ed Weibrecht, then-president of the Lake Placid Chamber of Commerce and owner of the Mirror Lake Inn with wife Lisa. “There wasn’t a level of national pride that I think we have today.

“A tear almost comes to my eyes – that was so overwhelming,” Weibrecht said. “At the end of the game, all you could hear was the chant: ‘USA! USA! USA!’ And when the people poured out into the street, that’s all you could hear for an hour up and down Main Street. People really, really became proud to be Americans again. It was incredible.”

Some too young to remember have been touched, too.

Kimberly Kruckenberg, of Matthews, North Carolina, was 9 and hockey certainly wasn’t on her radar then. It is now, and she and her husband, who both play the sport recreationally, will celebrate their 16th wedding anniversary with Eruzione and his buddies at the fantasy camp.

“Being in the arena and kind of going through history, to be able to watch them experience it, kind of relive it almost, was an opportunity we couldn’t pass up,” Kimberly said. “I probably won’t stop smiling. I’ll be sitting there in awe, being able to be where they were.”

SUAMICO – Penelope and Buttercup the porcupines are braving the winter at the NEW Zoo by spending a lot of time in their dens.

Neil Anderson tells us more about the ladies, along with their winter diets and activities.

And Grace the macaw recently arrived at the zoo. She got her first check up this morning.

Ingredients:

1 package (16 ounces) frozen chopped broccoli, thawed
2 cans cream of celery soup
1 ¼ to 2 cups milk
8 ounces Velveeta, cubed
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese, plus extra for serving on top
Salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

In a soup pan, heat 1 ¼ cups milk and cans of soup. Whisk until blended, add broccoli. Stir & heat on low. Add Velveeta cheese and stir until melted or completely combined. Stir in cheddar cheese. Add salt & pepper to taste. If too thick add a bit more milk. Great served with extra cheese and croutons on top.

DE PERE- Drew Farwell shared this video with us.

He spotted the snowy owl in the De Pere area.

You can tell it was a windy day, but it didn’t seem to bother the bird.

Click on the video to see the owl.

MILWAUKEE (AP) – Police say two 16-year-old girls were struck by a pickup truck as they were crossing a busy street in Milwaukee.

According to a press release, the teens were crossing Blue Mound Road on Tuesday afternoon when they were hit by an eastbound truck. They were taken to a hospital with injuries that don’t appear to be life-threatening.

Lt. Mark Stanmeyer of the Milwaukee Police Department says the driver, a 29-year-old Milwaukee man, remained at the scene and was cooperating with investigators.

Witnesses said motorists rarely follow the speed limit on the street and it can be hard for pedestrians to cross.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) – State Rep. Duey Stroebel credits hard work and a good message for his win in Wisconsin’s 20th Senate District.

Stroebel collected about 67 percent of the vote in Tuesday’s special primary election, easily beating Ozaukee County Board Chairman Lee Schlenvogt and military veteran Tiffany Koehler.

No Democrats are running in the April 7th general election, making it all but certain that Stroebel’s win will increase the Republican majority in the Senate to 19-14.

The Cedarburg real estate developer couldn’t beat Glenn Grothman last year in a run for Congress, but he’ll likely take Grothman’s seat in the Senate.

Stroebel thanked his opponents and told the Journal Sentinel it was a clean race with the focus on the issues. In unofficial returns, Schlenvogt trailed with about 24 percent of the vote and Koehler brought in about 8 percent.

MADISON- Members of the Menominee Nation have made it to Madison.

They walked more than 150 miles from Keshena, to protest Governor Scott Walker’s decision to reject a proposed casino in Kenosha.

They started their march on Friday and arrived in Madison Tuesday.

Leaders want to meet with Walker to talk about the casino project, but Walker said Tuesday there won’t be a meeting.

The tribe will rally at noon at the State Capitol.

We’ll have complete coverage tonight on FOX 11 News at 5 and 9.

SHIOCTON – We are spending the morning at a place that would be perfect for a Friday Fish Fry.

Emily Deem spent Wednesday morning at River Rail in Shiocton.

River Rail been family owned and operated for more than 30 years.

They have a huge variety of fish that would be perfect during the lent season.

Click here for more information about River Rail in Shiocton.

MOUNT CARBON, W.Va. (AP) – The fiery derailment of a train carrying crude oil in West Virginia is one of three in the past year involving tank cars that already meet a higher safety standard than what federal law requires – leading some to suggest even tougher requirements that industry representatives say would be prohibitively costly.

Hundreds of families were evacuated and nearby water treatment plants were temporarily shut down after cars derailed from a train carrying 3 million gallons of North Dakota crude Monday, shooting fireballs into the sky, leaking oil into a Kanawha River tributary and burning down a house nearby. It was snowing at the time, but it is not yet clear if weather was a factor.

The train’s tanks were a newer model – the 1232 – designed during safety upgrades voluntarily adopted by the industry four years ago. The same model spilled oil and caught fire in Timmins, Ontario on Saturday, and last year in Lynchburg, Virginia.

A series of ruptures and fires have prompted the administration of President Barack Obama to consider requiring upgrades such as thicker tanks, shields to prevent tankers from crumpling, rollover protections and electronic brakes that could make cars stop simultaneously, rather than slam into each other.

If approved, increased safety requirements now under White House review would phase out tens of thousands of older tank cars being used to carry highly flammable liquids.

“This accident is another reminder of the need to improve the safety of transporting hazardous materials by rail,” said Christopher Hart, acting chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board.

But industry officials say upgrading further from the 1232 cars would be too costly. The Railway Supply Institute says an estimated $7 billion has already been spent to put 57,000 of these cars into service.

“We have billions invested in tank cars,” Bob Greco, a senior official with the American Petroleum Institute, told The Associated Press in July. “Every day new, modern 1232 tank cars are coming into service.”

Oil shipments by rail jumped from 9,500 carloads in 2008 to more than 435,000 in 2013, driven by a boom in the Bakken oil patch of North Dakota and Montana, where pipeline limitations force 70 percent of the crude to move by rail, according to American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers.

The downside: Trains hauling Bakken-region oil have been involved in major accidents in Virginia, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Alabama and Canada, where 47 people were killed by an explosive derailment in 2013 in Lac-Megantic, Quebec.

Reports of leaks and other oil releases from tank cars are up as well, from 12 in 2008 to 186 last year, according to Department of Transportation records reviewed by The Associated Press.

Just Saturday – two days before the West Virginia wreck – 29 cars of a 100-car Canadian National Railway train carrying diluted bitumen crude derailed in a remote area 50 miles south of Timmins, Ontario, spilling oil and catching fire. That train was headed from Alberta to Eastern Canada.

The train Monday was bound for an oil shipping depot in Yorktown, Virginia, along the same route where three tanker cars plunged into the James River in Lynchburg, Virginia, prompting an evacuation last year.

The train derailed near unincorporated Mount Carbon just after passing through Montgomery, a town of 1,946, on a stretch where the rails wind past businesses and homes crowded between the water and the steep, tree-covered hills. All but two of the train’s 109 cars were tank cars, and 26 of them left the tracks.

Fire crews had little choice but to let the tanks burn themselves out. Each carried up to 30,000 gallons of crude. Oil cars were still burning Tuesday evening.

One person – the owner of the destroyed home – was treated for smoke inhalation, but no other injuries were reported, according to the train company, CSX. The two-person crew, an engineer and conductor, managed to decouple the train’s engines from the wreck behind it and walk away unharmed.

The NTSB said its investigators will compare this wreck to others including Lynchburg and one near Casselton, N.D., when a Bakken crude train created a huge fireball that forced the evacuation of the farming town.

No cause has been determined, said CSX regional vice president Randy Cheetham. He said the tracks had been inspected just three days before the wreck.

“They’ll look at train handling, look at the track, look at the cars. But until they get in there and do their investigation, it’s unwise to do any type of speculation,” he said.

By Tuesday evening, power crews were restoring electricity, water treatment plants were going back online, and most of the local residents were back home. Initial tests showed no crude near water plant intake points, state Environmental Protection spokeswoman Kelley Gillenwater said.

State officials do have say some say over rail safety.

Railroads are required by federal order to tell state emergency officials where trains carrying Bakken crude are traveling. CSX and other railroads called this information proprietary, but more than 20 states rejected the industry’s argument, informing the public as well as first-responders about the crude moving through their communities.

West Virginia is among those keeping it secret. State officials responded to an AP Freedom of Information request by releasing documents redacted to remove nearly every detail.

There are no plans to reconsider after this latest derailment, said Melissa Cross, a program manager for the West Virginia Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.

GREEN BAY- Temperatures will only rise to near 5 Wednesday with wind chills of -10 to -20 all day.

We’ll see a mix of sun and clouds with northwest winds at 10 to 20 mph.

Thursday morning will be extremely cold with a wake up temperature of -13 degrees and wind chills between -20 and -30 which will likely bring wind chill advisories to the area.

The high on Thursday afternoon will only reach 1 degree. Some parts of the area won’t break into positive digits but at least we’ll see lots of sunshine. Wind chills throughout the day will be -15 to -30!

After another cold morning Friday (near -13) we’ll see highs in the teens with afternoon and evening light snow and a possible inch or two of accumulation.

TOWN OF ADDISON, Wis. (AP) – Authorities say a 28-year-old Hartford man was killed when the vehicle he was driving rear-ended a school bus in the Town of Addison.

According to the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, the man failed to stop for the bus, which had its flashing lights activated, on Tuesday afternoon. A press release says the man struck the bus from behind while it was stopped along Highway 83 to allow a student to exit.

The vehicle’s driver was pronounced dead at the scene.

The 54-year-old bus driver and two of three students on board weren’t hurt. But a 9-year-old boy was taken to the hospital with a shoulder injury.

Witnesses told deputies they believed inattentive driving and excessive speeds were factors in the fatal crash.

A great night on the high school basketball court tonight, including a record-breaking performance from Green Bay Southwest’s Natisha Hiedeman. Boys brackets will be released this weekend as we are inching close to WIAA playoffs.

GREEN BAY – Did you know Wisconsin’s first movie was filmed in Green Bay?

It happened 102 years ago in the city’s downtown.

In response to a newspaper article, hundreds of people showed up on Washington Street to be part of ‘moving pictures to be taken.’ The filming happened on a Monday and Tuesday in July 1913.

“I mean we’re talking eight people deep across Washington Street, so they came down to see this new phenomenon of moving pictures in their city,” said Kevin Cullen, deputy director at the Neville Public Museum.

More than a hundred years later, more than a hundred people showed up at the Neville Public Museum to see Wisconsin’s first known film, A Gay Day in Green Bay.

“Films from the 1910s, 1920s don’t often survive for a variety of reasons, so to have an entire film from 1913 is really rare and really special,” said Mary Huelsbeck, assistant director of the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research.

Green Bay businessmen had famous sports reporter Charles Pyle come to the city to make the film.

“They often times used the films to promote the community to other people, to other businesses to entice them to move to Green Bay,” said Huelsbeck.

In the film you can see Green Bay East High School, Howe Elementary School, several churches, and parts of the Astor Park Neighborhood.

“It shows kind of a wonderful insight into what the state of the city was, but also what the film industry was becoming and what downtown became, which was a theatre district in the 20s,” said Cullen.

The 14 minutes shown at the Neville are believed to just be outtakes from the feature length film. However, the museum just received nitrate film rolls that could make up the entire movie.

“We don’t know what’s in these canisters. We have to get it restored, again it’s very flammable, but we might have a full length film. We don’t know yet and that’s the exciting part,” said Cullen.

The museum hopes to receive grant money for the project, which is expected to cost a few thousand dollars.

If you weren’t able to make tonight’s showing, A Gay Day In Green Bay is being shown in an exhibit upstairs at the Neville.

SHAWANO – Public school students in Shawano will spend fewer *days* in class next year. The trade-off? Each school day will be a bit longer.

Students in Shawano will have six fewer days in class next school year.

“Now that we can count minutes versus days, we’re going to have to add ten minutes to each instructional day throughout the year to make sure we have to satisfy enough minutes throughout the school year,” said Superintendent of Schools Gary Cumberland.

Prior to last year, public school students in Wisconsin were required 180 days of instruction. The state legislature did away with that rule. Now, the Department of Public instruction requires a certain amount of hours–ranging between 437 to more than 1100, depending on grade level.

The School superintendent says though students will be here in these halls fewer days next year, the teachers will be here for the same amount of days as before, using the extra days as professional development.

“In the past we’ve had six half-days of in-service where the students would come for half the day and then the other half of the day we’d have training for the staff,” said Cumberland.

Cumberland says he wants to make the process easier for parents than having half-days.

“Typically they are on a Friday,” said Cumberland. “It would be helpful if it was that end of the week in case they were going to plan something different.”

Parents we spoke with after school say they’re on board with the change.

“Ten minutes is not going to hurt kids. I mean when you’re young like that, ten minutes is pocket change,” said Claude Adkins.

“I’m ok with that actually. I think that it would be a good solution for a lot of families,” said Debbie Stebs.

Teachers we spoke to didn’t want to go on camera, but said the switch won’t affect the average school day that much.

The Shawano Schools Superintendent says he’s leaving the decision of where to add the extra ten minutes up to the school principals.

MANITOWOC – Wisconsin’s maritime history is filled with tales of tragedy and triumph.

And now, four Lakeshore communities could be the next to get a federal designation recognizing shipwrecks and their need for preservation.

Beneath Lake Michigan’s frigid waters, at least 122 ships have gone down on Wisconsin’s lakeshore; 33 have been identified and 14 are intact.

“The more shipwrecks we can identify, the more we can tell, the more we appreciate and understand our history,” said Wendy Lutzke, the education director with the Wisconsin Maritime Museum in Manitowoc.

This is why the museum is waiting, patiently.

The state of Wisconsin applied and has now been added to a shortlist of potential, new National Marine Sanctuaries. Lake Huron is currently the only Great Lake with designated national marine sanctuary in Alpena, Michigan’s Thunder Bay.

The roughly 875-square-mile area would span from Port Washington, north to Sheboygan, Manitowoc, ending north of Two Rivers.

City leaders say a federal designation, highlighting the importance of shipwrecks and history would only enhance the education opportunities the Lakeshore region produces.

“Whether it’s the Wisconsin Maritime museum in Manitowoc, Rogers Street fishing Village here in Two Rivers, we already celebrate a lot of that maritime heritage,” said Two Rivers City Manager Greg Buckley. “But I think from the economic standpoint, we do see a tourism benefit, deriving.”

“National parks are easy – you can go see the Grand Canyon,” said Cheryl Oliver. “National Marine Sanctuaries? Not so easy.”

Oliver is the sanctuary program manager with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, the federal agency in charge of sanctuary designations. There 13 sanctuaries total.

Oliver and two others from NOAA are in Manitowoc this week to set up ‘Treasures of NOAA’s Ark’, a new 10-month long exhibit highlighting the administration’s history.

“We are bringing our sanctuaries, our resources to the people in a way that you may not be able to. I’m not a diver, I like being above water.”

The display will be used to complement the maritime museum’s – ironically enough – first ever shipwreck exhibit.

Museum leaders say being considered for the designation is a big deal. If approved, it could mean more federal support in the form of programming, personnel, research and educational outreach.

“The story of shipwrecks is not really told here in the museum,” said Rolf Johnson, the museum’s CEO. “The fact we were able to put in an application to say, ‘Hey, we’d like this to be designated as a sanctuary,’ and the fact that NOAA is so supportive at this stage of the game, reaffirms how important these are.”

Despite the high praise from NOAA for the National Marine Sanctuary application – it’s not a done process and must still be officially approved and could take several years. However Johnson says the hope is very optimistic.

GREEN BAY – Green Bay resident Holly Krause worked all year, her employer withholding extra tax, so she would see a sizable tax refund. Only instead of going online to check her bank account, she’s now jumping through hoops to get her money.

“It just takes one person who want to do something negative with your information and can completely destroy you financially,” said Krause.

Krause is one of millions nationwide who has had her identity stolen.

This summer a thief used it to file a bogus unemployment claim. Getting away with one payment from the state.

And now a fraudulent claim was filed, to get her tax refund, with no indication they’re connected.

Krause’s tax accountant notified her of the problem.

“As soon as I hung up the phone I cried because you feel like, violated, somebody has access to all your information,” said Krause. “Hopefully I’ll be refunded the money I’m rightfully owed.”

Krause was expecting a check for more than $4,000.

The money already earmarked to cover various expenses.

“So now everything is kind of on hold,” said Krause.

“We have not seen widespread issues like other states are reporting but we do see some fraudulent returns every year,” explained Stephanie Marquis, spokeswoman of the Wisconsin Department of Revenue.

Wisconsin’s Department of Revenue previously upgraded its fraud detection efforts to identify cases of stolen identity.

“We ended up recouping and saving our taxpayers nearly $50-million last fiscal year between our fraudulent or inappropriately filed claims,” said Marquis.

On the federal level, the Internal Revenue Service prevented $50-billion in fraudulent claims stopping more than 14 million suspicious returns from 2011 through 2013. Number one, when you realize you’re a victim contact the IRS and the state immediately.

The IRS says Krause will get her refund. But she needs to do a little more work now filing forms, and contacting various agencies, like Social Security to protect her identity.

“I really felt completely violated that someone had access to all my information and I didn’t know what they were using it for,” said Krause.

As far as the state income tax returns are concerned a spokeswoman for the Department of Revenue says safeguards are in place to hopefully catch fraudulent claims before they are mailed out.

But the safeguards in place also mean delays in processing refunds. Everyone should expect delays of a few days.

You can click here to see if your 2014 tax return was filed.

For more information on identity protection and victim assistance, click here.

BELOIT, Wis. (AP) – A Beloit man has pleaded guilty to killing his father with a hammer in August.

Against the advice of his attorneys, 30-year-old Peter Hemmy waived his preliminary hearing and pleaded guilty to first-degree intentional homicide Tuesday.

Hemmy was charged with killing his 58-year-old father Bruce Hemmy.  The complaint says Peter Hemmy went to Beloit police on Aug. 25 and told an officer he had killed his father by striking him in the head with a hammer.  Police went to the home and found the father’s body.

Prosecutors say Peter Hemmy was upset because his parents were moving and he would have no place to live.

Hemmy was found competent to stand trial last week. Hemmy’s bond was revoked and a pre-sentence investigation ordered. Sentencing is set for April 24.

LITTLE CHUTE — This season the Little Chute girls basketball team is looking to go somewhere it never has been — the state tournament.

The Mustangs enter the postseason next week as a No. 1 seed in a Division 3 bracket and has a realistic shot of reaching the Resch Center.

Monday, the Mustangs stepped out of the tough Eastern Valley Conference to play Wrightstown and the performance was on par for what Little Chute has done this season. The Mustangs controlled a solid Wrightstown team, seeded No. 4 in a different Division 3 bracket, and posted a 58-45 win.

“Wrightstown’s really a quality opponent,” coach Jim Neubert said. “We knew we were going to get a lot of pressure. I like how we responded. It was a good tune-up for us for the tournament.”

Little Chute (18-3), ranked No. 2 in the FOX 11 Top 11, showed why it has big postseason aspirations. Senior Abbie Botz (10 points) had her normal game, scoring, rebounding and making slick passes, but sophomore Tess Geyzers stole the show with 24 points, scoring on drives, jumpers and 3-pointers.

And this is what makes Little Chute dangerous — it has options. Six different players have scored in double figures this season.

“It’s interesting, every game we have somebody else step up,” Neubert said. “We’re pretty balanced when we score.”

Little Chute ends the regular season Thursday against Winneconne and then enters the postseason, where it will play the winner of No. 4-seeded Fox Valley Lutheran and No. 5 Winneconne on Feb. 27.

The Mustangs look ready, but Neubert isn’t ready to say everything’s perfect. He is a coach, after all.

“I think we’ve been playing great; we have some things to clean up,” Neubert said. “Right now they are playing with a ton of confidence.”

Follow Doug Ritchay on Twitter @dougritchay

STOCKBRIDGE – Day four of the Sturgeon Spearing season is in the books.

And there is a noticeable trend this year, lighter fish.

Fisherman and biologists say the fish are thinner, and that it all comes down to what the sturgeon have been eating.

“46.8 pounds,” called out a registration station worker.

Rick Ley speared the five-foot long Lake Winnebago sturgeon near Stockbridge, Tuesday morning.

“It’s number 12 in 40 years of fishing, so I’m happy,” said Rick Ley, Greenleaf.

Fish biologists say Ley’s fish, and others like it should be larger. About 10-20 pounds heavier.

“These sturgeon that are being speared this year, are in lower condition than what they have been in recent years, particularly over the last five years. By lower condition, I mean they’re just not as fat as they have been,” said Ryan Koenigs, D.N.R. Sturgeon Biologist.

Koenigs says sturgeon feed on lake fly larvae or red worms. The fish also eat gizzard shad. The high-fat fish that suffered a large scale die-off on the lake last summer. Koenigs says with fewer gizzard shad, the sturgeon rely on the red worms to survive.

“However, they don’t have quite the fatty nutritional value that the shad do, so we are seeing the fish be a little bit leaner,” said Koenigs.

And that means fewer giants too.

“Last year, during the spear fishing on Lake Winnebago, about 6.5% of the fish that we’ve harvested were 100 pounds or larger. This year at this point, we’re seeing about 2%,” said Koenigs.

Crews took muscle samples, and checked the stomachs of eight fish at Stockbridge. 80 sturgeon will be checked in all. Koenigs says the stomach sampled at Stockbridge indicates a diet of worms, but he says the fish are healthy.

“It’s not to worry down the road, that we’re going to see higher mortality or anything, or these fish are going to start to die. They’re being fed enough to sustain themselves. We’re just not seing them being as fat as we’re accustomed to,” said Koenigs.

Spearers we talked to say any sturgeon, is a good sturgeon.

“This fish looked good. He’s plump. He’s strong. You could see the way he looked. He’s in good shape,” said Ley.

As for the Sturgeon Spearing season, Chad Cherney harvested an 81.3″ female that topped the scales at 137.5 pounds.

The D.N.R. expects the season to end Thursday on the Upriver Lakes.

As for Lake Winnebago, officials say it could close as soon as Thursday.