BirdTrout
Apple River, Wisconsin
18.8 mapped river miles, draining 300 square miles, in the St Croix basin watershed. No gauge stands in it; the nearest is 13.0 miles away, and what this page knows about its temperature is Wisconsin DNR'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 13.0 miles away, at Saint Croix River — not a reading of this water, but of what the region is doing today. A closer gauge has stopped reporting — its water-temperature series is empty, and was last stamped 28 September 2026, so no number here comes from it.
The character of the water
The Apple is Class II water under Wisconsin DNR, managed as wild supplemented, and the classification is thin on it: 21 miles typed Cold, 24 per cent of its 86.02 NHD miles, which describes a quarter of the river and is silent about the rest. There is no gauge in it. The nearest, thirteen miles off on the St Croix, is a much larger water and answers for itself only. The channel is 19.9 feet across at the median, fifth order, draining 300.4 square miles over the 18.8 miles of axis mapped here — a substantial drainage for a stream this width. Two blocks of public ground front it and neither is large against that length: 0.69 of a mile inside a 28-acre remnant parcel and 0.58 through the Parker Creek habitat area. Parker Creek itself, nine miles long, comes in high at river mile 16.0.
Thermal classification
Wisconsin DNR'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 | Wisconsin DNR type |
|---|---|---|---|
| RM 17.0–0.0 | 21.0 | cold | — |
Wisconsin DNR has classified 21.0 of the 86 miles NHD carries for this stream — 24% of it. Every typed reach carries the same class, cold. The untyped reaches are not warm water — they are water Wisconsin DNR's inventory does not reach, and the mile ranges above span only the reaches it does.
Questions about this river
- Apple River fishing report — what it reads right now
- When to fish the Apple River — hatches, seasons and temperature
- How to get to the Apple River — access, parking and public land
- Apple River fishing regulations — season, size and gear by reach
- Is the Apple River good for brown trout?
- Is the Apple River good for rainbow trout?
Wisconsin DNR classification
Wisconsin DNR classifies this water as Class II. The management tier on those reaches is wild supplemented. This is a designation of the fishery, not the season and creel rules — those change yearly and live with the agency.
WDNR trout stream classification →
Public land on the river
2 units of public or open-access land touch this river, 616 acres in total. Acreage is the whole unit, not the part beside the water.
| Unit | Owner | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| Rem-Apple River | state natural-resources agency | 28 |
| Parker Creek State Habitat Area-Western Prairie Habitat Restoration Area | state natural-resources agency | 588 |
Species
WDNR has stocked brown trout into this water 4 times between 2015 and 2019. That is a stocking record rather than a survey — it says the fish were put in, not that a survey has found them since.
WDNR has stocked rainbow trout into this water 11 times between 2015 and 2025. That is a stocking record rather than a survey — it says the fish were put in, not that a survey has found them since.
Hatches on this water
42 insects are recorded from northern Wisconsin, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fish Eggs Other |
October–January and April | 33–60°F | #10–16 |
| 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 |
| Blackfly Simulium spp. |
April–June | 40–65°F | #18–22 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| Giant Black Stonefly (Salmonfly) Pteronarcys dorsata |
May–June | 50–62°F | #4–6 |
| Green Sedge Rhyacophila spp. |
May–August | 48–64°F | #12–16 |
| Light Cahill Maccaffertium ithaca |
May–July | 55–68°F | #12–16 |
And 28 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
4 named streams meet this one. Confluence miles are above the mouth; the longest twelve are listed.
- Parker Creek 9.2 mi · RM 16.0
- Wapogasset Branch 5.7 mi · RM 12.6
- Peabody Creek 3.5 mi · RM 11.2
- Cedar Creek 0.0 mi · RM 0.0
Apple River sits in HUC 8 07030001, 07030002 and 07030005, the St Croix basin, and drains 300 square miles, Strahler order 5 at the mouth. 74 NHD reaches carry the name for 86.0 miles in total — more than the 18.8 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.