BirdTrout
La Crosse River, Wisconsin
12.6 mapped river miles, draining 321 square miles, in the La Crosse Pine basin watershed. A USGS gauge stands in it, but its record is too short for a measured July mean, so what this page knows about its temperature is today's reading and 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
This gauge stands in the La Crosse River. Its record is too short for a July mean, so the class below is Wisconsin DNR's — but the reading is this water.
The character of the water
The La Crosse is sixth order and drains 321.03 square miles, and Wisconsin DNR has typed 21.3 of its 70.78 NHD miles as Cold — 30 per cent, with no reach classed otherwise. Under a third of the river classified is a sample of a large drainage, and these files say nothing about the rest of it. The state designates the water Class I and Class II, managed as wild and as wild supplemented. There is no gauge in it and no measured temperature. The channel is 16.5 feet across at the median over the 12.6 miles of axis mapped, which is narrow for the ground it drains. No block of public land on our map fronts it, and Wisconsin has no access file. Suukjak Sep Creek, seven and a half miles long, comes in near the mouth at river mile 0.5.
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 12.6–0.0 | 21.3 | cold | — |
Wisconsin DNR has classified 21.3 of the 71 miles NHD carries for this stream — 30% 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
- La Crosse River fishing report — what it reads right now
- When to fish the La Crosse River — hatches, seasons and temperature
- La Crosse River fishing regulations — season, size and gear by reach
- Is the La Crosse River good for rainbow 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 →
Species
WDNR has stocked rainbow trout into this water once, in 2020. 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
1 named stream meets this one. Confluence miles are above the mouth; the longest twelve are listed.
La Crosse River sits in HUC 8 07040006, the La Crosse Pine basin, and drains 321 square miles, Strahler order 6 at the mouth. 112 NHD reaches carry the name for 70.8 miles in total — more than the 12.6 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.