BirdTrout

West Branch Brandywine Creek, Pennsylvania

22 mapped river miles, draining 21 square miles, in the Brandywine Christina basin watershed. A USGS gauge stands in it, but its record is too short for a measured July mean, so what this page knows about its temperature is today's reading and PA DEP's classification of the water itself.

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Map key
Public land — where the bank is open to walk and fish
USGS gauge — live water temperature
Water temperature — the colour of the river, and of every dot on it

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

This gauge stands in West Branch Brandywine Creek. Its record is too short for a July mean, so the class below is PA DEP's — but the reading is this water.

62.2 °F
West Branch Brandywine Creek At Coatesville, Pa
on this water · 25 cfs · read 30 Sep, 9:45 am ET
Cold-transitional

Thermal classification

PA DEP's classification of this water, reach by reach. A class, not a temperature — no July mean, because none was measured here.

Reach Typed miles Band PA DEP type
RM 22.4–7.7 14.8 cool —
RM 3.3–0.0 13.6 warm —

PA DEP has classified 28.4 of the 34 miles NHD carries for this stream — 85% of it. The typed water splits 14.8 mi cool, 13.6 mi warm. The untyped reaches are not warm water — they are water PA DEP's inventory does not reach, and the mile ranges above span only the reaches it does.

Questions about this river

PA DEP classification

PA DEP classifies this water as Trout Stocking and Warm Water Fishes. More than one class appears because the classification changes along the river. The thermal bar above shows where. The management tier on those reaches is Trout Stocking, Warm Water Fishes. This is a designation of the fishery, not the season and creel rules — those change yearly and live with the agency.

Public land on the river

11 units of public or open-access land touch this river, 2,293 acres in total. Acreage is the whole unit, not the part beside the water.

Unit Owner Acres
Hibernia County Park county land 1,003
Hibernia Trail city land 64
Icedale Lake state fish and wildlife agency 50
Icedale Lake another state agency 50
S. Mount Airy Rd Open Space city land 103
Brandywine Creek Park city land 9
Brandywine Creek Open Space city land 36
Brandywine Ave Open Space city land 4
Municipal Land city land 800
Struble Trail county land 173

Species

PA DEP designates this as trout water — Trout Stocking — without naming the species. No fish survey or stocking record for this water is in the files this site reads.

Tributaries and watershed

5 named streams meet this one. Confluence miles are above the mouth; the longest twelve are listed.

West Branch Brandywine Creek sits in HUC 8 02040205, the Brandywine Christina basin, and drains 21 square miles, Strahler order 3 at the mouth. 70 NHD reaches carry the name for 33.5 miles in total — more than the 22.4 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.