BirdTrout
Sand Creek, Minnesota
9.5 mapped river miles, draining 24 square miles, in the Little Fork basin watershed. No gauge stands in it; the nearest is 21.6 miles away, and it is the only temperature evidence on this page — what Minnesota DNR publishes is the Chapter 6264 listing below — a land-use protection under Minnesota Rules, not a thermometer.
50°F and colder is cold, through cold-transitional and cool, to warm above 70°F — the same four bands, breaking at 58, 64 and 70°F, that the app paints. Grey is water nobody has measured.
The nearest live reading
The nearest gauge is 21.6 miles away, at Sand River Near Britt, Mn — not a reading of this water, but of what the region is doing today.
Thermal classification
There isn't one. Minnesota DNR publishes no temperature classification for any water in Minnesota. What it publishes is the Chapter 6264 listing below — a land-use protection under Minnesota Rules, not a thermometer — so this river draws grey on the map above, and grey here means unmeasured rather than warm. The only temperature on this page is the live reading from the nearest USGS gauge, 21.6 miles away; it is a reading of that water, not this one.
Questions about this river
- Sand Creek fishing report — what it reads right now
- When to fish Sand Creek — hatches, seasons and temperature
- How to get to Sand Creek — access, parking and public land
- Sand Creek fishing regulations — season, size and gear by reach
MN DNR trout stream designation
MN DNR lists Sand Creek under Minnesota Rules Chapter 6264 as designated trout stream. Chapter 6264 is a land-use rule — its stated purpose is timber harvest and watershed permitting, with recreation second. It is not the season and creel rules, which change yearly and live with the agency, and it is not a statement about temperature.
MN DNR designated trout streams →
Public land on the river
2 units of public or open-access land touch this river, 56,773 acres in total. Acreage is the whole unit, not the part beside the water.
| Unit | Owner | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| Sturgeon River | Minnesota DNR | 56,702 |
| Sand Creek Ii Ama (St. Louis) | Minnesota DNR | 71 |
Species
Minnesota DNR designates this as trout water — Designated trout stream — without naming the species. No fish survey or stocking record for this water is in the files this site reads.
Hatches on this water
42 insects are recorded from northern Wisconsin, across the state line. No insect records in this dataset are filed under Minnesota, so these are the nearest ones — the same landscape and the same water, on the other side of the border, and not a survey of this stream or even of this state. Open the river in the app and the hatch panel will narrow it to the ones whose temperature window today's reading is inside.
| Insect | Peak | Water | Size |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fish Eggs Other |
October–January and April | 33–60°F | #10–16 |
| Little Brown Stonefly Taeniopteryx / Strophopteryx spp. |
February–April | 38–50°F | #12–16 |
| Blue-Winged Olive Baetis spp. |
March–May and September–November | 38–58°F | #16–22 |
| Blackfly Simulium spp. |
April–June | 40–65°F | #18–22 |
| Cranefly Tipula spp. |
April–June and September–October | 40–65°F | #6–10 |
| Grannom Brachycentrus spp. |
April–May | 48–58°F | #14–16 |
| Green Rock Worm / Green Weenie Rhyacophila spp. |
April–June and September–October | 45–68°F | #10–14 |
| Hendrickson Ephemerella subvaria |
April–May | 45–58°F | #12–14 |
| Alderfly Sialis spp. |
May–June | 52–66°F | #10–14 |
| Caterpillar Lepidoptera larvae |
May–September | 55–75°F | #8–14 |
| Crayfish Orconectes spp. |
May–October | 55–78°F | #4–8 |
| Giant Black Stonefly (Salmonfly) Pteronarcys dorsata |
May–June | 50–62°F | #4–6 |
| Green Sedge Rhyacophila spp. |
May–August | 48–64°F | #12–16 |
| Light Cahill Maccaffertium ithaca |
May–July | 55–68°F | #12–16 |
And 28 more — the year-round records, mostly: midges, scuds and sculpins, which are in the water every day and are therefore never the news.
Tributaries and watershed
Sand Creek sits in HUC 8 09030005, the Little Fork basin, and drains 24 square miles, Strahler order 3 at the mouth. 13 NHD reaches carry the name for 9.5 miles in total.
Other water nearby
The closest 6 rivers on this site, straight-line from the middle of this one — not drive time.