BirdTrout
Kewaunee River, Wisconsin
14.0 mapped river miles, draining 70 square miles, in the Lakeshore basin watershed. No gauge stands in it; the nearest is 0.8 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 0.8 miles away, at Kewaunee River — not a reading of this water, but of what the region is doing today.
The character of the water
The Kewaunee is Class II water under Wisconsin DNR, managed as wild supplemented, and the thermal classification barely reaches it: 3.9 miles typed Cold out of 24.36 NHD miles, 16 per cent. Six-sevenths of the river is unclassified in this file, so the class here describes a short stretch and not the river. There is no gauge in it; the nearest is on the Fox, 19.3 miles away. It runs 23.2 feet across at the median, fifth order, draining 69.81 square miles over the 14 miles of axis mapped. Public ground is the Ahnapee State Trail, 557 acres following the corridor, with 2.25 miles of the river inside it, and three small harbour-side parks at the bottom adding a few hundred feet each. Little Scarboro Creek comes in at the head 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 14.0–14.0 | 3.9 | cold | — |
Wisconsin DNR has classified 3.9 of the 24 miles NHD carries for this stream — 16% 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.
The lake run
The Kewaunee River is a Lake Michigan tributary with 26.1 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 Kewaunee River →
Questions about this river
- Kewaunee River fishing report — what it reads right now
- When to fish the Kewaunee River — hatches, seasons and temperature
- How to get to the Kewaunee River — access, parking and public land
- Kewaunee River fishing regulations — season, size and gear by reach
- Is the Kewaunee River good for brown trout?
- Is the Kewaunee 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
4 units of public or open-access land touch this river, 562 acres in total. Acreage is the whole unit, not the part beside the water.
| Unit | Owner | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| Ahnapee State Trail | state natural-resources agency | 557 |
| Harbour Park | city land | 2 |
| Fish Market Park | city land | 2 |
| Harbor Point Park | city land | 0 |
Species
WDNR has stocked brown trout into this water 13 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 29 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
1 named stream meets this one. Confluence miles are above the mouth; the longest twelve are listed.
Kewaunee River sits in HUC 8 04030101, 04030102, 04030103, 04030203, 04030204 and 04190000, the Lakeshore basin, and drains 70 square miles, Strahler order 5 at the mouth. 72 NHD reaches carry the name for 24.4 miles in total — more than the 14.0 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.