BirdTrout
Balsam Creek, Wisconsin
15.7 mapped river miles, draining 31 square miles, in the Nemadji basin watershed. No gauge stands in it; the nearest is 15.9 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 15.9 miles away, at Saint Louis River — not a reading of this water, but of what the region is doing today.
The character of the water
Balsam Creek carries all three of Wisconsin DNR's classes — Class I, Class II and Class III, managed as wild, wild supplemented and stocked — and 28.4 of its 28.72 NHD miles are typed, 99 per cent, effectively all of them Cold. Coverage that complete means the classification is a description of the creek rather than of a sample. There is no gauge in it; the nearest is on the St Louis, 15.9 miles off. It is 12.1 feet across at the median, fourth order, draining 31.15 square miles over the 15.7 miles of axis mapped. The public ground behind it is the Douglas County Forest, 295,165 acres, and 6.91 miles of the creek run inside it — most of the mapped length. Little Balsam Creek comes in at river mile 3.7 and Empire Creek at 1.9.
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 15.7–0.0 | 28.4 | cold | — |
| RM 0.0–0.0 | 0.0 | cool | — |
Wisconsin DNR has classified 28.4 of the 29 miles NHD carries for this stream — 99% of it. The typed water splits 28.4 mi cold, 0.0 mi cool. 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
- Balsam Creek fishing report — what it reads right now
- When to fish Balsam Creek — hatches, seasons and temperature
- How to get to Balsam Creek — access, parking and public land
- Balsam Creek fishing regulations — season, size and gear by reach
Wisconsin DNR classification
Wisconsin DNR classifies this water as Class I, Class II, and Class III. 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, wild, 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
1 unit of public or open-access land touches this river, 295,165 acres in total. Acreage is the whole unit, not the part beside the water.
| Unit | Owner | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| Douglas County Forest | county land | 295,165 |
Species
Wisconsin DNR designates this as trout water — Class I, Class II, Class III — without naming the species. No fish survey or stocking record for this water is in the files this site reads.
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
2 named streams meet this one. Confluence miles are above the mouth; the longest twelve are listed.
Balsam Creek sits in HUC 8 04010301, the Nemadji basin, and drains 31 square miles, Strahler order 4 at the mouth. 22 NHD reaches carry the name for 28.7 miles in total — more than the 15.7 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.