BirdTrout
Clam River, Wisconsin
14.1 mapped river miles, draining 75 square miles, in the St Croix basin watershed. No gauge stands in it; the nearest is 27.7 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 27.7 miles away, at St. Croix River At St. Croix Falls, Wi — not a reading of this water, but of what the region is doing today.
The character of the water
Wisconsin DNR designates the Clam under all three of its classes — Class I, Class II and Class III, managed as wild, wild supplemented and stocked — and has typed 14.6 of its 56.4 NHD miles, 26 per cent, splitting 11.0 Cold against 3.6 Cool. A quarter of the river classified is a sample and these files cannot say which end each class falls on. There is no gauge in it; the nearest is on the St Croix, 27.7 miles off. The channel is 19.1 feet across at the median, fourth order, draining 74.82 square miles over 14.1 mapped miles of axis. Public frontage is good: 5.05 miles inside the McKenzie Creek Wildlife Area and 2.8 through the Polk County Forest, more than half the mapped river. Sucker Creek comes in near the head at river mile 13.7.
Thermal classification
This is inferred, not measured. Wisconsin DNR does not publish a temperature classification for this water. What it publishes is a management tier — whether the trout in it are wild, hold over through summer, or are stocked and fished out — and the bands below are read off that tier, because a stream that sustains wild trout is a cold stream and one that does not hold fish past July is not. It is the agency's judgement of the fishery translated into the four bands this site paints everywhere else; it is not a thermometer, and where the two disagree the thermometer is right.
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 8.4–0.0 | 8.4 | cold | — |
| RM 0.0–0.0 | 0.0 | cool | — |
| RM 0.0–0.0 | 0.3 | cold | — |
| RM 0.0–0.0 | 0.9 | cool | — |
| RM 0.0–0.0 | 2.3 | cold | — |
| RM 0.0–0.0 | 2.7 | cool | — |
Wisconsin DNR has classified 14.6 of the 56 miles NHD carries for this stream — 26% of it. The typed water splits 11.0 mi cold, 3.6 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
- Clam River fishing report — what it reads right now
- When to fish the Clam River — hatches, seasons and temperature
- How to get to the Clam River — access, parking and public land
- Clam River fishing regulations — season, size and gear by reach
- Is the Clam River good for brown 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, 22,417 acres in total. Acreage is the whole unit, not the part beside the water.
| Unit | Owner | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| Mckenzie Creek Wildlife Area | state natural-resources agency | 5,548 |
| Polk County Forest | county land | 16,869 |
Species
WDNR has stocked brown trout into this water once, in 2019. 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
2 named streams meet this one. Confluence miles are above the mouth; the longest twelve are listed.
- McKenzie Creek 23.9 mi · RM 0.0
- Sucker Creek 5.3 mi · RM 13.7
Clam River sits in HUC 8 07030001, 07030002 and 07030005, the St Croix basin, and drains 75 square miles, Strahler order 4 at the mouth. 87 NHD reaches carry the name for 56.4 miles in total — more than the 14.1 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.