STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
The duration of fishing season depends on the fish. Some of them you can fish for all year. Others you can try for only in certain months or even a single day. In northeast Michigan, this year, the season for one particular fish lasted minutes. Teresa Homsi of our member station WCMU watched the spearing of a dinosaur fish.
TERESA HOMSI, BYLINE: Ice shanties dot the horizon as the sun rises over a frozen lake in northern Michigan. It's 8 a.m. on a Saturday and only 4 degrees out, but hundreds of people have gathered here, all because of the elusive, prehistoric lake sturgeon. They're one of the largest fish in North America and have a sharklike tail and a bony-plated covering.
DOUG LARSON: They call them living fossils because they first appeared in the fossil record 130 or so million years ago. And so that's the time when dinosaurs still would have been walking the Earth.
HOMSI: That's Doug Larson, a sturgeon researcher from Michigan State University. He's with a crowd of spectators who are clamoring to catch a glimpse of the fish. Lake sturgeon are not considered endangered, but they're listed as a threatened species in Michigan. For the last 25 years, the state has run a limited sturgeon season on this lake. Only six to seven fish can be caught this year, but nearly 800 people have shown up for the chance. There wasn't a season last year because a record-breaking warm winter canceled the event.
JAY WOIDERSKI: Having the fishing season, the fishing contest - way better. It's fabulous. We're excited.
HOMSI: Jay Woiderski is with Sturgeon for Tomorrow, the local nonprofit that supports sturgeon conservation. He says the limited season keeps the cultural relevance of the lake sturgeon alive. And the fish population has more than doubled in the last 25 years.
WOIDERSKI: Well, obviously, we're bringing awareness to it through the whole country. It's such a well-regulated season, and we're restricted to 1.2% of the total population in this lake.
HOMSI: This year, there's barely any time for anticipation to set in. In a quick procession, a series of text messages goes out to all the participants when a fish is caught. And only 17 minutes after the 8 a.m. start time...
WOIDERSKI: The Black Lake sturgeon season is over.
HOMSI: The winning spearfishers bring their prized fish up to state officials, who take the sturgeons' measurements and scan them for tags.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: And whoever owns that fish can take it home.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Eighteen pounds.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: Can I take your picture?
HOMSI: The crowd of onlookers parts for the lucky seven fishermen and women, who rise to celebrity status as they haul their fish around and pose for pictures.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #4: It's like a Taylor Swift show.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #5: (Laughter).
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #4: Everybody's just - where's Kelce (laughter)?
DEBBIE LALONDE: I seen four, so we kind of knew were in a good spot.
HOMSI: Debbie Lalonde speared the first fish of the season, and she's all smiles. It's her first time catching a sturgeon.
LALONDE: I was shaking (laughter). I was nervous, but it was exciting.
HOMSI: The largest fish is 5'3" and weighs nearly 80 pounds. A tag indicates this female sturgeon was caught 14 years ago during routine monitoring. There's no good way to know how old she is, but Larson, the MSU researcher, says she may be more than a century old.
LARSON: In the 24 years that we've been doing this, we've caught her one time. So this is a very elusive fish for us, but not for the spear.
HOMSI: And all of the dinosaur fish were caught in 17 minutes - a record-breaking time.
For NPR News, I'm Teresa Homsi in Cheboygan, Michigan.
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