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Minnesota Trout Fishing Report

Measured · 9 gauges reporting · 3:24 PM EDT on September 28, 2026

Right now

Minnesota water is running 55–64°F across 9 gauges reporting in the last 6 hours. 8 are in prime shape — St Louis River at 55°F, Sand River at 58°F, Rainy River at 61°F, and others below. One sits in the 64–70°F transitional band, where the fish are catchable early and should be left alone by mid-afternoon. Air holds in the 70s through Thu, and water should hold about where it is.

Every temperature behind the clock on this page is a measurement — USGS water temperature at a real gauge, taken within 6 hours of the reading's own hour. Hours ahead of the last measurement are projected from the hourly air forecast and are labelled as projected. That is also why the lists below are only as long as the gauge network is dense — a river with no gauge on it has nothing measured to report.

Data refreshed nightly, current-hour rendered live — this page carries 24 hours of measured water behind 3:24 PM EDT on September 28, 2026 and 48 ahead of it, and shows the hour you are reading it in.

Streams by condition

The bands are the map's own: the same breaks BirdTrout paints water with, so a stream that is green here is green there.

Regional breakdown

Each region's own report, with what its gauges read at the hour shown above.

Hatching right now

The bugs whose peak covers this month in Minnesota, with the water temperature each is active in. Peak only — a shoulder month is on the bug's own page.

• Mayfly · Blue-Winged Olive Baetis spp. · size 16–22 · active 38–58°F
  Two broods a year, spring and fall, and the worse the weather the better the hatch. Grey, drizzling, 45°F is the day.
• Terrestrial · Cricket Gryllidae · size 10–14 · active 55–75°F
  The late-season terrestrial, after the hoppers thin out. Black, and fished in the shade.
• Terrestrial · Grasshopper Acrididae · size 8–12 · active 60–80°F
  Meadow water, a warm wind, and a bank you can slap a fly against. Best after the grass has dried out in August.
• Midge · Midge Chironomidae · size 18–24 · active 33–75°F
  The only thing hatching in January and still hatching in July. When nothing else explains rising fish, it is midges.
• Mayfly · Trico Tricorythodes spp. · size 20–24 · active 58–72°F
  Dun at first light, spinner fall by mid-morning, done by eleven. Tiny flies and long fine tippet — the most technical dry fishing of the year.

Next three days

Air holds in the 70s through Thu, and water should hold about where it is.

Air, not water. Water follows smoothed air with a sensitivity well below one — a spring creek barely feels a hot afternoon and a shallow freestone nearly tracks it — so this table is a direction, and the measurements above are the answer.

What the water is classed as

6,277 classified stream miles in Minnesota, by MN DNR Chapter 6264 designation. This is the standing classification, not today's temperature — it is what the water is normally, which is the context the readings above sit in.

More water in Minnesota

Rivers here with a full BirdTrout page — survey history, access, public land and regulations — whether or not a gauge is reporting on them this hour.

• Amenda Creek
• Amity Creek
• Anderson Creek
• Arrowhead Creek
• Artichoke River
• Assinika Creek
• Badger Creek
• Bally Creek
• Balsam Creek
• Barker Creek
• Bear Creek
• Bear Creek
• Beartrap Creek
• Beaver Creek
• Beaver Creek
• Beaver Creek East
• Beaver Creek West
• Beaverdam Creek

Before you go

Regions

• Boundary Waters
• North Shore
• Iron Range
• Twin Cities
• Minnesota Driftless

Other states

• Michigan
• Wisconsin
• Virginia
• North Carolina
• Pennsylvania
• Ohio
• New York
• West Virginia

See this water on the map →Every reach coloured by today's water temperature, starting at the coldest reading in this report.