BirdTrout
Kickapoo River, Wisconsin
24 mapped river miles, draining 102 square miles, in the Kickapoo basin watershed. No gauge stands in it; the nearest is 33.1 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 33.1 miles away, at Silver Creek At State Highway 21 Near Angelo, Wi — not a reading of this water, but of what the region is doing today.
The character of the water
Wisconsin DNR has typed 69.7 miles of the Kickapoo as Cold — 52 per cent of its 134.69 NHD miles — and designates the water under Class I and Class II together, managed as wild in places and as wild supplemented in others. No gauge stands in it, so there is no measured temperature on this page, only the class. It is a narrow river for its length: 15.9 feet at the median, fifth order, draining 101.79 square miles over the 23.6 miles of axis mapped. Two blocks of public ground front it, and the useful one is Wildcat Mountain State Park, 3,703 acres with 3.82 miles of the river inside its boundary. Six named tributaries come in — Brush Creek at the head, Billings Creek at river mile 14.4, then Jug, Indian and Weister Creeks through the middle and Plum Run near the bottom. Otter Creek meets the river at the mouth.
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 23.6–0.0 | 69.7 | cold | — |
Wisconsin DNR has classified 69.7 of the 135 miles NHD carries for this stream — 52% 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
- Kickapoo River fishing report — what it reads right now
- When to fish the Kickapoo River — hatches, seasons and temperature
- How to get to the Kickapoo River — access, parking and public land
- Kickapoo River fishing regulations — season, size and gear by reach
- Is the Kickapoo River good for brook trout?
- Is the Kickapoo River good for brown trout?
Wisconsin DNR classification
Wisconsin DNR classifies this water as Class I and Class II. 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 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, 4,684 acres in total. Acreage is the whole unit, not the part beside the water.
| Unit | Owner | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| Wildcat Mountain State Park | state natural-resources agency | 3,703 |
| Statewide Habitat Areas - Wd | state natural-resources agency | 981 |
Species
WDNR has stocked brook trout into this water 9 times between 2016 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.
WDNR has stocked brown 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.
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
7 named streams meet this one. Confluence miles are above the mouth; the longest twelve are listed.
- Billings Creek 16.7 mi · RM 14.4
- Otter Creek 15.3 mi · RM 0.0
- Brush Creek 13.0 mi · RM 23.6
- Weister Creek 9.4 mi · RM 8.1
- Jug Creek 7.4 mi · RM 11.5
- Indian Creek 3.2 mi · RM 9.2
- Plum Run 1.9 mi · RM 2.3
Kickapoo River sits in HUC 8 07070006, the Kickapoo basin, and drains 102 square miles, Strahler order 5 at the mouth. 211 NHD reaches carry the name for 134.7 miles in total — more than the 23.6 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.