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Iron Range Fishing Report

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

The St. Louis and Cloquet drainages under the Mesabi — big tannic water through the cut-over north.

Right now

Iron Range water is running 55–61°F across 3 gauges reporting in the last 6 hours. 3 are in prime shape — St Louis River at 55°F, Sand River at 58°F, St Louis River at 61°F. Air peaks at 77°F on Wed, and water should hold about where it is, and 0.8″ 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 peaks at 77°F on Wed, and water should hold about where it is, and 0.8″ 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

697 classified stream miles in Iron Range, 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 Iron Range

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.

• Anderson Creek
• Artichoke River
• Beartrap Creek
• Bjorks Creek
• Blackhoof River
• Chalberg Creek
• Chicken Creek
• Coolidge Creek
• Dark River
• Deer Creek
• Dutch Slough
• Fond du Lac Creek
• Gill Creek
• Hasty Brook
• Hay Creek
• Hay Creek
• Hellwig Creek
• Humphrey Creek

Before you go

Other regions

• Boundary Waters
• North Shore
• 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.