By Kathleen Schmitt Kline
You don’t need an ice shanty to spear a sturgeon on Lake Winnebago—a blanket over your head will do just fine.
There’s been a lot of talk this year about thin ice on Lake Winnebago, and for good reason. Spearers usually like to tow their shanties out on the ice with their four-wheel-drive trucks, using roads that local fishing clubs plow and mark with Christmas trees set aside after the holidays. But with such a mild winter this year, the clubs are keeping their vehicles off the ice and advising that everyone else do the same.
The first people to spear on Lake Winnebago never worried about their vehicles breaking through the ice. Native Americans simply walked out on the frozen lake, cut a hole, laid down on their stomachs, and covered their heads with a blanket to make it dark enough to see the light coming from the water. Sometimes they constructed a makeshift teepee to allow a little more headroom. With such a lightweight setup, I’ve been thinking that they were probably able to spear even when the ice was fairly thin. Spreading their body weight out by lying on their stomachs might have provided a little extra security, too.
Nowadays, people prefer to be a little more comfortable—and warmer—while they wait for a sturgeon to swim by. However, I met a few people on Lake Winnebago who still prefer to spear while lying on their stomachs on the floors of their shanties. They told me that their field of view is improved by being that much closer to the surface of the water. They also said that they had always speared that way, because their father or grandfather had done it that way. And probably, going back a few generations, one of their ancestors learned to spear that way from the Menominee or Stockbridge Indians who lived in the area.
