BirdTrout
Buffalo River, Wisconsin
24 mapped river miles, draining 421 square miles, in the Buffalo Whitewater basin watershed. No gauge stands in it; the nearest is 35.3 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 39.7 miles away, at Eau Galle River At Spring Valley, Wi — 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 23 December 2024, so no number here comes from it.
The character of the water
The Buffalo drains 420.58 square miles and is 34.7 feet across at the median, fifth order, a substantial river — and Wisconsin DNR has typed only 13.4 of its 71.18 NHD miles, 19 per cent, effectively all of it Cold. What is classified here is a fifth of the river, and the file is silent about the rest. The state designates it Class II and Class III, managed as wild supplemented and as stocked. There is no gauge in it and no measured temperature. No block of public land in these files fronts the 24.1 miles of axis mapped, and Wisconsin has no access file, so this page cannot say where the bank is open. Four named tributaries come in, the longest being Elk Creek at 16.4 miles, entering at river mile 15.0.
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 24.1–24.0 | 13.2 | cold | — |
| RM 24.0–24.0 | 0.2 | cool | — |
Wisconsin DNR has classified 13.4 of the 71 miles NHD carries for this stream — 19% of it. The typed water splits 13.2 mi cold, 0.2 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
- Buffalo River fishing report — what it reads right now
- When to fish the Buffalo River — hatches, seasons and temperature
- Buffalo River fishing regulations — season, size and gear by reach
- Is the Buffalo River good for brook trout?
- Is the Buffalo River good for brown 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 →
Species
WDNR has stocked brook trout into this water once, in 2015. 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 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
5 named streams meet this one. Confluence miles are above the mouth; the longest twelve are listed.
- Elk Creek 16.4 mi · RM 15.0
- Pine Creek 13.6 mi · RM 0.0
- Harvey Creek 10.7 mi · RM 24.1
- Tamarack Creek 8.8 mi · RM 8.3
- Hutchinson Creek 7.0 mi · RM 3.5
Buffalo River sits in HUC 8 07040003, the Buffalo Whitewater basin, and drains 421 square miles, Strahler order 5 at the mouth. 403 NHD reaches carry the name for 71.2 miles in total — more than the 24.1 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.