BirdTrout
Baraboo River, Wisconsin
14.9 mapped river miles, draining 95 square miles, in the Baraboo basin watershed. No gauge stands in it; the nearest is 31.8 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 31.8 miles away, at Stillwell Creek At Sixteenth Court Near Tomah, Wi — not a reading of this water, but of what the region is doing today.
The character of the water
Wisconsin DNR designates the Baraboo Class II and Class III, managed as wild supplemented and as stocked, and has typed 15.8 miles of it — 35 per cent of its 45.34 NHD miles — splitting 10.1 Cold against 5.7 Cool. A third of the river classified is a sample, and the file says nothing about the two-thirds it has not reached, nor about where on the river either class sits. There is no gauge in it and no measured temperature. The channel is 17.3 feet across at the median, fifth order, draining 94.96 square miles over the 14.9 miles of axis mapped. Public ground amounts to one strip: the 400 State Trail, 333 acres, fronting under two-tenths of a mile. Lydon Valley Creek enters at river mile 10.1 and Spring Valley Creek at 9.7, four hundred yards apart.
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 14.9–4.8 | 10.1 | cold | — |
| RM 4.8–0.0 | 5.7 | cool | — |
Wisconsin DNR has classified 15.8 of the 45 miles NHD carries for this stream — 35% of it. The typed water splits 10.1 mi cold, 5.7 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
- Baraboo River fishing report — what it reads right now
- When to fish the Baraboo River — hatches, seasons and temperature
- How to get to the Baraboo River — access, parking and public land
- Baraboo River fishing regulations — season, size and gear by reach
- Is the Baraboo River good for brook trout?
Wisconsin DNR classification
Wisconsin DNR classifies this water as 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 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, 333 acres in total. Acreage is the whole unit, not the part beside the water.
| Unit | Owner | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| The 400 State Trail | state natural-resources agency | 333 |
Species
WDNR has stocked brook trout into this water 7 times between 2015 and 2020. 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
51 insects are recorded from the Wisconsin driftless, 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 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 |
| 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 |
| Hendrickson Ephemerella subvaria |
April–May | 45–58°F | #12–14 |
| Little Black Caddis Chimarra atterima |
April–May | 46–58°F | #16–20 |
| Caterpillar Lepidoptera larvae |
May–September | 55–75°F | #8–14 |
| Crayfish Orconectes spp. |
May–October | 55–78°F | #4–8 |
| Inchworm Geometridae |
May–June | 50–68°F | #12–16 |
| Light Cahill Maccaffertium ithaca |
May–July | 55–68°F | #12–16 |
And 37 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.
Baraboo River sits in HUC 8 07070004, the Baraboo basin, and drains 95 square miles, Strahler order 5 at the mouth. 76 NHD reaches carry the name for 45.3 miles in total — more than the 14.9 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.