BirdTrout
Little Wolf River, Wisconsin
20 mapped river miles, draining 74 square miles, in the Wolf basin watershed. No gauge stands in it; the nearest is 22.8 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 22.8 miles away, at Red River At Morgan Road Near Morgan, Wi — not a reading of this water, but of what the region is doing today.
The character of the water
Wisconsin DNR designates the Little Wolf Class I and Class II, managed as wild and as wild supplemented, and has typed 30.2 miles of it as Cold — 59 per cent of its 50.98 NHD miles, so the classification covers rather more than half the water and says nothing about the rest. No gauge stands in it. It is 20.9 feet across at the median, fourth order, draining 74.03 square miles over the 20.1 miles of axis mapped. Four blocks of public ground front it, 5,310 acres between them, and the frontage is concentrated: 5.78 miles inside the 2,344-acre Little Wolf River Fishery Area, another mile through the state natural area of the same name, and about half a mile each through two Ice Age Trail parcels. Two tributaries are longer than the mapped mainstem — Comet Creek at 27.3 miles and Flume Creek at 24.3 — entering at river miles 6.2 and 7.5.
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 20.1–0.0 | 30.2 | cold | — |
Wisconsin DNR has classified 30.2 of the 51 miles NHD carries for this stream — 59% 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
- Little Wolf River fishing report — what it reads right now
- When to fish the Little Wolf River — hatches, seasons and temperature
- How to get to the Little Wolf River — access, parking and public land
- Little Wolf River fishing regulations — season, size and gear by reach
- Is the Little Wolf River good for brook trout?
- Is the Little Wolf 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
4 units of public or open-access land touch this river, 5,310 acres in total. Acreage is the whole unit, not the part beside the water.
| Unit | Owner | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| Little Wolf River Fishery Area | state natural-resources agency | 2,344 |
| Little Wolf River State Natural Area | state natural-resources agency | 160 |
| Ice Age Trail | state natural-resources agency | 1,434 |
| Ice Age Trail - Wd | state natural-resources agency | 1,372 |
Species
WDNR has stocked brook trout into this water 4 times between 2015 and 2018. 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 4 times between 2015 and 2018. 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
5 named streams meet this one. Confluence miles are above the mouth; the longest twelve are listed.
- Comet Creek 27.3 mi · RM 6.2
- Flume Creek 24.3 mi · RM 7.5
- Holt Creek 8.6 mi · RM 20.1
- Bradley Creek 7.4 mi · RM 14.8
- Jackson Creek 5.9 mi · RM 12.4
Little Wolf River sits in HUC 8 04030202, the Wolf basin, and drains 74 square miles, Strahler order 4 at the mouth. 57 NHD reaches carry the name for 51.0 miles in total — more than the 20.1 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.