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Minnesota Driftless Fishing Report

No live readings · built 3:24 PM EDT on September 28, 2026

The south-east coulee country — karst spring creeks on the same unglaciated limestone as Wisconsin's driftless, and the state's densest trout water.

Right now

No gauge in Minnesota Driftless has reported a water temperature in the last 6 hours, so there is nothing measured to report. The classification and hatch sections below are unaffected.

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

No gauge in this region is reporting water temperature right now, so there is nothing to sort. The Minnesota Fishing Report carries every reading in the state, and this section fills in the hour a gauge here comes back.

Hatching right now

The bugs whose peak covers this month in Minnesota Driftless, 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 60s 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

1,885 classified stream miles in Minnesota Driftless, 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 Driftless

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.

• Badger Creek
• Bear Creek
• Bear Creek
• Beaver Creek
• Beaver Creek
• Beaver Creek East
• Beaver Creek West
• Bee Creek
• Big Springs Creek
• Big Trout Creek
• Bridge Creek
• Butterfield Creek
• Camp Creek
• Campbell Creek
• Canfield Creek
• Carson Creek
• Cedar Creek
• Clear Creek

Before you go

Other regions

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

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.