BirdTrout
Blue River, Wisconsin
22 mapped river miles, draining 185 square miles, in the Lower Wisconsin basin watershed.
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 character of the water
The Blue is Class II water under Wisconsin DNR, managed as wild supplemented, with 17.7 of its 37.1 NHD miles typed Cold — 48 per cent, and no reach classed otherwise. There is no gauge in it and no measured temperature. It is sixth order and 21.3 feet across at the median, draining 185.17 square miles over the 22.1 miles of axis mapped. Public ground here is easement rather than block: 1.58 miles inside Streambank Easement Program land and 1.48 through a remnant parcel on the Blue River itself, a little over three miles of frontage from 575 acres — which is what an easement programme buys, bank rather than back country. Four named tributaries come in: Badger Hollow Creek at river mile 16.6, Bronson Creek at 15.0, Big Rock Branch at 8.9 and Sixmile Branch at 3.4.
Thermal classification
There is no USGS gauge within 40 miles of this stream in the record this site holds, so there is no live temperature on this page and no measured July mean. Everything below the bar is Wisconsin DNR's own classification of the water.
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 22.1–4.4 | 17.7 | cold | — |
Wisconsin DNR has classified 17.7 of the 37 miles NHD carries for this stream — 48% 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
- Blue River fishing report — what it reads right now
- When to fish the Blue River — hatches, seasons and temperature
- How to get to the Blue River — access, parking and public land
- Blue River fishing regulations — season, size and gear by reach
- Is the Blue River good for brook trout?
- Is the Blue River good for brown trout?
- Is the Blue 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, 575 acres in total. Acreage is the whole unit, not the part beside the water.
| Unit | Owner | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| Streambank Easement Program | another state agency | 334 |
| Rem-Blue River | state natural-resources agency | 241 |
Species
WDNR has stocked brook trout into this water 11 times between 2015 and 2022. 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 26 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.
WDNR has stocked rainbow trout into this water 18 times between 2015 and 2021. 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
4 named streams meet this one. Confluence miles are above the mouth; the longest twelve are listed.
- Sixmile Branch 8.9 mi · RM 3.4
- Big Rock Branch 8.2 mi · RM 8.9
- Badger Hollow Creek 3.1 mi · RM 16.6
- Bronson Creek 2.8 mi · RM 15.0
Blue River sits in HUC 8 07070005, the Lower Wisconsin basin, and drains 185 square miles, Strahler order 6 at the mouth. 77 NHD reaches carry the name for 37.1 miles in total — more than the 22.1 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.