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Boundary Waters Fishing Report

Measured · 2 gauges reporting · 3:24 PM EDT on September 28, 2026

The border-lakes country and the Rainy — canoe water, lake trout, and the streams between the portages.

Right now

Boundary Waters water is running 61–64°F across 2 gauges reporting in the last 6 hours. 2 are in prime shape — Rainy River at 61°F, Kawishiwi River at 64°F. Air holds in the 70s through Thu, and water should hold about where it is, and 2.1″ of rain in the window will bump flows and cool the freestones.

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.

Hatching right now

Nothing is at peak emergence here this month. Terrestrials and nymphs carry the water between hatches.

Next three days

Air holds in the 70s through Thu, and water should hold about where it is, and 2.1″ of rain in the window will bump flows and cool the freestones.

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

1,104 classified stream miles in Boundary Waters, 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 Boundary Waters

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
• Arrowhead Creek
• Assinika Creek
• Bally Creek
• Balsam Creek
• Barker Creek
• Beaverdam Creek
• Blind Temperance Creek
• Bluff Creek
• Brule River
• Burnt Creek
• Cabin Creek
• Camp Creek
• Carlson Creek
• Cedar Creek
• Cliff Creek
• Cross River
• Cut Face Creek

Before you go

Other regions

• 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.