BirdTrout
Lunch Creek, Wisconsin
18.2 mapped river miles, draining 22 square miles, in the Upper Fox basin watershed. No gauge stands in it; the nearest is 17.8 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 17.8 miles away, at Fox River At Berlin, Wi — not a reading of this water, but of what the region is doing today.
The character of the water
Lunch Creek is typed end to end and typed Cold: 18.2 miles, 98 per cent of its 18.48 NHD miles, with no reach classed otherwise, under Wisconsin DNR's Class I and Class II designation and managed as wild and as wild supplemented. There is no gauge in it; the nearest is on the Fox, 17.8 miles away and a much warmer river. It is 13.6 feet across at the median and second order, draining 22.25 square miles over the 18.2 miles of axis mapped — a long creek for a small drainage. Public ground fronts about five and a third miles of it: 4.98 inside the White River Fishery Area in Waushara County and a sixth of a mile each through the Lunch Creek Wetlands natural area and one further parcel. No named tributary enters it.
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 18.2–0.0 | 18.2 | cold | — |
Wisconsin DNR has classified 18.2 of the 18.5 miles NHD carries for this stream — 98% 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
- Lunch Creek fishing report — what it reads right now
- When to fish Lunch Creek — hatches, seasons and temperature
- How to get to Lunch Creek — access, parking and public land
- Lunch Creek fishing regulations — season, size and gear by reach
- Is Lunch Creek 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
3 units of public or open-access land touch this river, 10,885 acres in total. Acreage is the whole unit, not the part beside the water.
| Unit | Owner | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| White River Fishery Area-Waushara | state natural-resources agency | 3,487 |
| Natural Area | county land | 7,185 |
| Lunch Creek Wetlands State Natural Area | state natural-resources agency | 213 |
Species
WDNR has stocked brown trout into this water 4 times between 2015 and 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
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
Lunch Creek sits in HUC 8 04030201, the Upper Fox basin, and drains 22 square miles, Strahler order 2 at the mouth. 9 NHD reaches carry the name for 18.5 miles in total — more than the 18.2 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.