BirdTrout
Mecan River, Wisconsin
18.3 mapped river miles, draining 144 square miles, in the Upper Fox basin watershed. No gauge stands in it; the nearest is 18.9 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 18.9 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
Wisconsin DNR designates the Mecan Class I and Class II, managed as wild and as wild supplemented, and has typed 28.4 miles of it as Cold — 68 per cent of its 41.71 NHD miles, and the only class recorded on it. No gauge stands in this river; the nearest is on the Fox, 18.9 miles away, and it reads a different water. The Mecan is 31.2 feet across at the median, fourth order, draining 143.79 square miles over the 18.3 miles of axis this site maps. Ground is the striking fact here: the Mecan River Fishery Area covers 6,882 acres and 11.47 of those mapped miles run inside it, which is close to two-thirds of the mapped length under one owner. Schmudlack Creek comes in high at river mile 16.3 and Little Pine Creek low at 3.5. Chaffee 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 17.2–0.0 | 28.4 | cold | — |
Wisconsin DNR has classified 28.4 of the 42 miles NHD carries for this stream — 68% 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.
Named stretches
Anglers name parts of this river. These are the names two or more independent sources use; each page says which sources, because a nickname is the one thing on this site that is not a measurement.
- The Mecan Artificial-Only Water — The Mecan in Waushara County, where WDNR holds part of the river to artificial lures and two fish over twelve inches — wild brown trout in clear, open water that is about as easy to cast as Wisconsin gets. The regulation covers part of the stream, not all of it — the extent above is the agency's wording. What is drawn here is the whole named stream, because there is no boundary anywhere we could check it against.
Questions about this river
- Mecan River fishing report — what it reads right now
- When to fish the Mecan River — hatches, seasons and temperature
- How to get to the Mecan River — access, parking and public land
- Mecan River fishing regulations — season, size and gear by reach
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
1 unit of public or open-access land touches this river, 6,883 acres in total. Acreage is the whole unit, not the part beside the water.
| Unit | Owner | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| Mecan River Fishery Area | state natural-resources agency | 6,883 |
Species
Wisconsin DNR designates this as trout water — Class I, Class II — without naming the species. No fish survey or stocking record for this water is in the files this site reads.
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
3 named streams meet this one. Confluence miles are above the mouth; the longest twelve are listed.
Mecan River sits in HUC 8 04030201, the Upper Fox basin, and drains 144 square miles, Strahler order 4 at the mouth. 49 NHD reaches carry the name for 41.7 miles in total — more than the 18.3 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.