BirdTrout
Black River, Wisconsin
25 mapped river miles, draining 1,460 square miles, in the Black basin watershed. No gauge stands in it; the nearest is 33.0 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 gauge, and why there is no reading from it
The nearest gauge, 33.0 miles away at Drywood Creek At Covered Footbridge Nr Cadott, Wi, is not reporting water temperature: its water-temperature series is empty, and was last stamped 23 December 2024. A stopped gauge repeats its last value in silence, so there is no live temperature here. What is below is modelled from the years that gauge did report: this gauge's own fitted line, its intercept plus its slope against the 3-day mean air temperature over it, fitted on its own daily record, ±1.7 °F. The shape of the week at that gauge, not a thermometer in this stream.
The character of the water
The Black drains 1,460.14 square miles, sixth order over the 24.6 miles of axis mapped, and Wisconsin DNR has typed only 22.4 of its 95.14 NHD miles, 24 per cent, splitting 15.4 Cold against 7.0 Cool. A quarter of the river classified is a small sample of a big river, and these files cannot say where on it either class falls. The state designates the water under all three of its classes, managed as wild, wild supplemented and stocked. There is no gauge in it and no measured temperature. Public ground on the 24.6 miles of axis mapped is two town parks in Medford, fourteen acres between them, fronting a little over half a mile. No named tributary is recorded along the mapped length; the Little Black River meets the water at the mouth.
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 24.6–9.3 | 15.3 | cold | — |
| RM 9.3–2.3 | 7.0 | cool | — |
| RM 0.0–0.0 | 0.1 | cold | — |
Wisconsin DNR has classified 22.4 of the 95 miles NHD carries for this stream — 24% of it. The typed water splits 15.4 mi cold, 7.0 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
- Black River fishing report — what it reads right now
- When to fish the Black River — hatches, seasons and temperature
- How to get to the Black River — access, parking and public land
- Black River fishing regulations — season, size and gear by reach
- Is the Black River good for brook trout?
- Is the Black River good for brown trout?
- Is the Black River good for rainbow trout?
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
2 units of public or open-access land touch this river, 14 acres in total. Acreage is the whole unit, not the part beside the water.
| Unit | Owner | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| Medford City Park | city land | 13 |
| Veterans' Memorial Park | city land | 1 |
Species
WDNR has stocked brook trout into this water 5 times between 2019 and 2023. 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 brown trout into this water 9 times between 2015 and 2024. 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
1 named stream meets this one. Confluence miles are above the mouth; the longest twelve are listed.
- Little Black River 0.0 mi · RM 0.0
Black River sits in HUC 8 07040007, the Black basin, and drains 1,460 square miles, Strahler order 6 at the mouth. 163 NHD reaches carry the name for 95.1 miles in total — more than the 24.6 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.