BirdTrout
Iron River, Wisconsin
17.6 mapped river miles, draining 147 square miles, in the Nemadji basin watershed. No gauge stands in it; the nearest is 9.4 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 31.9 miles away, at Namekagon River At Leonards, Wi — not a reading of this water, but of what the region is doing today. A closer gauge has stopped reporting — USGS carries no water-temperature series for it at all, so no number here comes from it.
The pills above go to USGS. These are this site's pages for the same gauges — a thirty-day chart, the monthly means, the record, and today's reading against the five-year normal for today: 04026005.
The character of the water
The Nemadji basin's Iron River is typed almost end to end — 27.1 of its 28.39 NHD miles, 95 per cent — and the classification splits 18.4 miles Cold against 8.7 Cool. On coverage that complete the split is a description of the river rather than an artefact of a partial file, though these pages cannot say which end each class falls on. Wisconsin DNR designates the water Class II and Class III, managed as wild supplemented and as stocked. There is no gauge in it; the nearest is 9.4 miles off on the Bois Brule. It runs 13.0 feet across at the median, fifth order, draining 147.14 square miles over 17.6 mapped miles. Public ground barely touches it — three-hundredths of a mile of the Bayfield County Forest. Hall Creek enters at river mile 14.0.
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 16.4–0.0 | 16.4 | cold | — |
| RM 0.1–0.0 | 1.6 | cool | — |
| RM 0.0–0.0 | 0.0 | cold | — |
| RM 0.0–0.0 | 7.0 | cool | — |
| RM 0.0–0.0 | 2.0 | cold | — |
| RM 0.0–0.0 | 0.1 | cool | — |
Wisconsin DNR has classified 27.1 of the 28 miles NHD carries for this stream — 95% of it. The typed water splits 18.4 mi cold, 8.7 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.
The lake run
The Iron River (Bayfield County) is a Lake Superior tributary with 23.0 miles of run corridor on it — salmon, steelhead and lake-run brown trout, on their own calendar and under their own rules. Run timing, species and access on the Iron River (Bayfield County) →
Questions about this river
- Iron River fishing report — what it reads right now
- When to fish the Iron River — hatches, seasons and temperature
- How to get to the Iron River — access, parking and public land
- Iron River fishing regulations — season, size and gear by reach
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 →
Public land on the river
1 unit of public or open-access land touches this river, 178,260 acres in total. Acreage is the whole unit, not the part beside the water.
| Unit | Owner | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| Bayfield County Forest | county land | 178,260 |
Species
Wisconsin DNR designates this as trout water — Class II, Class III — without naming the species. No fish survey or stocking record for this water is in the files this site reads.
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.
- Muskeg Creek 12.8 mi · RM 0.0
- Hall Creek 3.1 mi · RM 14.0
Iron River sits in HUC 8 04010301, the Nemadji basin, and drains 147 square miles, Strahler order 5 at the mouth. 38 NHD reaches carry the name for 28.4 miles in total — more than the 17.6 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.