BirdTrout
West Branch White Clay Creek, Pennsylvania
7.1 mapped river miles, draining 10 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.
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 White Clay Creek. Its record is too short for a July mean, so the class below is PA DEP's — but the reading is this water.
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 7.1–0.0 | 8.8 | cool | — |
PA DEP has classified 8.8 of the 8.8 miles NHD carries for this stream — 100% of it. Every typed reach carries the same class, cool. 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
- West Branch White Clay Creek fishing report — what it reads right now
- How to get to West Branch White Clay Creek — access, parking and public land
- West Branch White Clay Creek fishing regulations — season, size and gear by reach
PA DEP classification
PA DEP classifies this water as Trout Stocking. The management tier on those reaches is Trout Stocking. 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
4 units of public or open-access land touch this river, 436 acres in total. Acreage is the whole unit, not the part beside the water.
| Unit | Owner | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| Elwood L Crossan Park | city land | 131 |
| Elwood Crossan Memorial Park | joint city-county land | 122 |
| Franklin Preserve | city land | 91 |
| Miller Property | joint city-county land | 91 |
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
West Branch White Clay Creek sits in HUC 8 02040205, the Brandywine Christina basin, and drains 10 square miles, Strahler order 3 at the mouth. 12 NHD reaches carry the name for 8.8 miles in total — more than the 7.1 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.