This year’s sturgeon spearing season seemed to kick off as usual with cars and pickups spotted across the frozen surface of lake Winnebago. There were many successful spearers this season, reaching 90-99% of the harvest cap by the end of the second weekend, ending the season at 1 p.m. on Feb 23.
A new addition to many Wisconsinite’s traditions was introduced this year. Found one mile from the shore of Oshkosh, Sturgeon Spirits’ Bar on Ice served exclusive cocktails through the brief season. Bar on Ice is Wisconsin’s first legal pop-up bar to operate on a frozen lake, and it was immediately embraced by spearers, with staff needing to make trips back to shore on their opening weekend just to keep up with the demand.
Sturgeon Spirit’s founder, Karl Lowenstein, shared that the bar was made possible by a loophole in a 2024 alcohol law. This is likely in reference to 2023 Wisconsin Act 73, which authorizes certain alcohol producers to run up to three off-site, full-service locations in addition to the production site. Sturgeon Spirits is a distillery operating at a large enough capacity to take advantage of this loophole and set up the new bar, which Lowenstein noted, “could be anywhere; it didn’t have any specifications.”
With its opening weekend starting on Feb. 13 and closure on Feb. 22, Bar on Ice’s run was short lived but will be long-awaited next winter.