BirdTrout
East Branch Pecatonica River, Wisconsin
18.4 mapped river miles, draining 123 square miles, in the Pecatonica basin watershed. No gauge stands in it; the nearest is 18.7 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 18.7 miles away, at Sugar River Near Verona, Wi — not a reading of this water, but of what the region is doing today.
The character of the water
The East Branch of the Pecatonica is sixth order and drains 123.02 square miles, and yet it is only 8.8 feet across at the median. Wisconsin DNR designates it Class II, managed as wild supplemented, and has typed 12.9 of its 57.92 NHD miles as Cold, 22 per cent, with nothing classed otherwise. A fifth of the river classified describes a sample and says nothing about the rest. There is no gauge in it and no measured temperature. Public ground on the 18.4 miles of axis mapped is two adjoining prairie parcels, 1,215 acres between them, fronting a little over a mile. Smith Conley Creek, nearly nine miles long, comes in at river mile 8.0, and Williams-Barneveld Creek at 10.8.
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 10.8–0.0 | 12.9 | cold | — |
Wisconsin DNR has classified 12.9 of the 58 miles NHD carries for this stream — 22% 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
- East Branch Pecatonica River fishing report — what it reads right now
- When to fish the East Branch Pecatonica River — hatches, seasons and temperature
- How to get to the East Branch Pecatonica River — access, parking and public land
- East Branch Pecatonica River fishing regulations — season, size and gear by reach
- Is the East Branch Pecatonica River good for brown 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, 1,215 acres in total. Acreage is the whole unit, not the part beside the water.
| Unit | Owner | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| Muehllehner Addition To Barneveld Prairie | land trust or conservancy | 916 |
| Barneveld Prairie | land trust or conservancy | 299 |
Species
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.
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.
East Branch Pecatonica River sits in HUC 8 07090003, the Pecatonica basin, and drains 123 square miles, Strahler order 6 at the mouth. 94 NHD reaches carry the name for 57.9 miles in total — more than the 18.4 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.