now, that's a fish (story)!

From Doug Zellmer with the Oshkosh Northwestern (hat tip: NPR's Michael Feldman's "Whad'ya know?")...

Ed Blatz knew a big sturgeon had swum under his ice shanty Tuesday morning on Lake Winnebago.

The Fond du Lac man said he didn't quite know how large — he thought maybe 120 to 130 pounds.

He didn't waste any time and plunged a one-tine spear into the fish. About four minutes later it was out of the water and in the record books. Blatz had landed a 172-pound fish, the third largest sturgeon ever harvested from the Winnebago System, which includes the upriver lakes of Poygan, Winneconne and Butte des Morts.

"I didn't see the whole length of it before I speared it. I really didn't think it was as big as it was. I was surprised it weighed that much," Blatz said. "It's just a matter of luck and having it come under the hole. You're there and you get it."

Tuesday was the fourth and final day of the 2008 sturgeon-spearing season after a harvest cap trigger was reached Monday for adult female sturgeon. When 90 to 99 percent of any of three harvest caps—for adult female, juvenile female or male fish—is reached, the season closes after spearing the following day.

Blatz said he speared the adult female sturgeon, which measured 78 inches long, about 8:15 a.m. Tuesday in the middle of the lake about three miles out from Pipe on the eastern shore of Lake Winnebago.

"She put up a good fight," Blatz said, adding he will have the fish mounted.

Blatz said he didn't have any help pulling the sturgeon from the water.

"I pulled it half way out and it pulled me back toward the hole. It did that a few times," said Blatz, who has participated in sturgeon spearing since about 1970 and has harvested about 25 of the torpedo-shaped fish during that time period....

For photos, click here...