BirdTrout
Smith Creek, Minnesota
8.7 mapped river miles, draining 12 square miles, in the Mississippi Headwaters basin watershed. No gauge stands in it; the nearest is 30.6 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 gauge, and why there is no reading from it
The nearest gauge, 30.6 miles away at Unnamed Stream At N Savanna Rd Near Toivola, Mn, is not reporting water temperature: it has sent no water temperature for 1790 days, since 3 November 2021. A stopped gauge repeats its last value in silence, so there is no live temperature here. What is below is modelled from the years that gauge did report: this gauge's own fitted line, its intercept plus its slope against the 3-day mean air temperature over it, fitted on its own daily record, ±3.2 °F. The shape of the week at that gauge, not a thermometer in this stream.
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, 30.6 miles away; it is a reading of that water, not this one.
Questions about this river
- Smith Creek fishing report — what it reads right now
- How to get to Smith Creek — access, parking and public land
- Smith Creek fishing regulations — season, size and gear by reach
MN DNR trout stream designation
MN DNR lists Smith 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, 40,601 acres in total. Acreage is the whole unit, not the part beside the water.
| Unit | Owner | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| Smith Creek Ama (Itasca) | Minnesota DNR | 74 |
| Miscellaneous | Minnesota DNR | 40,527 |
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.
Tributaries and watershed
Smith Creek sits in HUC 8 07010101, the Mississippi Headwaters basin, and drains 12 square miles, Strahler order 3 at the mouth. 21 NHD reaches carry the name for 8.7 miles in total.
Other water nearby
The closest 5 rivers on this site, straight-line from the middle of this one — not drive time.