BirdTrout
Turkey Creek, Ohio
7.9 mapped river miles, draining 23 square miles, in the Ohio Brush Whiteoak basin watershed. No gauge stands in it; the nearest is 38.3 miles away, and it is the only temperature evidence on this page — what Ohio EPA publishes is the aquatic life use below — a habitat designation under Ohio Administrative Code 3745-1, which describes the assemblage the water holds rather than the temperature it runs at.
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 38.3 miles away, at Paint Creek (Scioto) — not a reading of this water, but of what the region is doing today.
Thermal classification
There isn't one. Ohio EPA publishes no temperature classification for any water in Ohio. What it publishes is the aquatic life use below — a habitat designation under Ohio Administrative Code 3745-1, which describes the assemblage the water holds rather than the temperature it runs at — 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, 38.3 miles away; it is a reading of that water, not this one.
Questions about this river
- Turkey Creek fishing report — what it reads right now
- When to fish Turkey Creek — hatches, seasons and temperature
- How to get to Turkey Creek — access, parking and public land
- Turkey Creek fishing regulations — season, size and gear by reach
Ohio EPA classification
Ohio EPA classifies this water as Exceptional Warmwater Habitat / Coldwater Habitat and Warmwater Habitat. More than one class appears because the classification changes along the river.Where it changes is on the map above, not in this page's tables: Ohio EPA publishes no temperature classification here, so nothing on this page is drawn from the class.This is Ohio EPA's description of the aquatic community the water supports, assigned under OAC 3745-1 on fish and macroinvertebrate survey scores. It is not the season and creel rules — those are the ODNR Division of Wildlife's, change yearly, and live with that agency.
Ohio EPA water quality standards, OAC 3745-1 →
Public land on the river
2 units of public or open-access land touch this river, 69,772 acres in total. Acreage is the whole unit, not the part beside the water.
| Unit | Owner | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| Shawnee State Forest | ODNR | 69,749 |
| Camp Oyo | land trust or conservancy | 23 |
Species
Ohio EPA designates this as trout water — Exceptional Warmwater Habitat / Coldwater Habitat — without naming the species. No fish survey or stocking record for this water is in the files this site reads.
Hatches on this water
56 insects are recorded from the Virginia mountains, across the state line. No insect records in this dataset are filed under Ohio, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Little Black Stonefly Allocapnia / Capnia spp. |
January–April | 34–46°F | #16–18 |
| 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 |
| Quill Gordon Epeorus pleuralis |
March–April | 42–52°F | #12–14 |
| Blackfly Simulium spp. |
April–June | 40–65°F | #18–22 |
| Blue Quill Paraleptophlebia adoptiva |
April–May | 44–56°F | #16–18 |
| 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 |
| Little Black Caddis Chimarra atterima |
April–May | 46–58°F | #16–20 |
| 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 |
And 42 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
9 named streams meet this one. Confluence miles are above the mouth; the longest twelve are listed.
- Stony Run 7.0 mi · RM 0.0
- Odell Creek 5.0 mi · RM 3.5
- Pond Lick Run 3.7 mi · RM 4.8
- Harber Fork Turkey Creek 3.0 mi · RM 6.6
- Wes Run 2.2 mi · RM 4.9
- Rabbit Run 2.2 mi · RM 1.7
- Barbara Run 1.9 mi · RM 5.9
- Worley Run 1.8 mi · RM 1.0
- Buck Lick 1.1 mi · RM 6.4
Turkey Creek sits in HUC 8 05090201, the Ohio Brush Whiteoak basin, and drains 23 square miles, Strahler order 5 at the mouth. 38 NHD reaches carry the name for 12.9 miles in total — more than the 7.9 miles of drawn mainstem, because NHD counts side channels and braids as their own reaches.
Other water nearby
The closest 6 rivers on this site, straight-line from the middle of this one — not drive time.