BirdTrout
Dan River, Virginia
23 mapped river miles, draining 40 square miles, in the Roanoke basin watershed. No gauge stands in it; the nearest is 22.5 miles away, and what this page knows about its temperature is Virginia DWR'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
The nearest gauge is 24.0 miles away, at Smith River Near Philpott, Va — not a reading of this water, but of what the region is doing today. A closer gauge has stopped reporting — USGS carries no water-temperature series for it at all, so no number here comes from it.
Thermal classification
This is inferred, not measured. Virginia DWR does not publish a temperature classification for this water. What it publishes is a management tier — whether the trout in it are wild, hold over through summer, or are stocked and fished out — and the bands below are read off that tier, because a stream that sustains wild trout is a cold stream and one that does not hold fish past July is not. It is the agency's judgement of the fishery translated into the four bands this site paints everywhere else; it is not a thermometer, and where the two disagree the thermometer is right.
Virginia DWR'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 | Virginia DWR type |
|---|---|---|---|
| RM 19.0–3.7 | 1.2 | cold | — |
| RM 2.1–1.5 | 1.3 | cold-transitional | — |
| RM 1.5–0.6 | 0.6 | cold | — |
Virginia DWR has classified 3.1 of the 63 miles NHD carries for this stream — 5% of it. The typed water splits 1.8 mi cold, 1.3 mi cold-transitional. The untyped reaches are not warm water — they are water Virginia DWR's inventory does not reach, and the mile ranges above span only the reaches it does.
Questions about this river
- Dan River fishing report — what it reads right now
- When to fish the Dan River — hatches, seasons and temperature
- Dan River fishing regulations — season, size and gear by reach
- Is the Dan River good for brook trout?
- Is the Dan River good for brown trout?
- Is the Dan River good for rainbow trout?
Virginia DWR classification
Virginia DWR classifies this water as Class II, Class III, and Class VI. 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 stocked holdover, wild. This is a designation of the fishery, not the season and creel rules — those change yearly and live with the agency.
Species Virginia DWR records in this water: brook trout, brown trout, rainbow trout. Recorded per classified reach, so it covers the classified water rather than the whole stream.
VDWR trout waters and stocking →
Species
Virginia DWR manages this water for brook trout, brown trout, rainbow trout. That is the state's designation rather than a survey: 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, which is the region this river sits in. That is a claim about the region and not a survey of this stream: nobody has recorded which of them has been caught here. 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
5 named streams meet this one. Confluence miles are above the mouth; the longest twelve are listed.
- Mill Creek 11.5 mi · RM 3.7
- Round Meadow Creek 6.2 mi · RM 0.1
- Ivy Creek 4.9 mi · RM 7.9
- Tuggle Creek 3.1 mi · RM 12.1
- Quaker Field Branch 0.9 mi · RM 17.7
Dan River sits in HUC 8 03010101 and 03010103, the Roanoke basin, and drains 40 square miles, Strahler order 5 at the mouth. 124 NHD reaches carry the name for 63.2 miles in total — more than the 23.1 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.