BirdTrout
Middle Branch Embarrass River, Wisconsin
23 mapped river miles, draining 73 square miles, in the Wolf basin watershed. No gauge stands in it; the nearest is 11.6 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 11.6 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
The Middle Branch of the Embarrass is classified almost end to end and all of it Cold: 56.8 miles typed, 99 per cent of its 57.57 NHD miles, under a Class I and Class II designation managed as wild and as wild supplemented. Coverage that complete means the classification describes the river rather than a sample of it. There is no gauge in it and no measured temperature. It is 15.3 feet across at the median and third order, draining 72.93 square miles over the 22.9 miles of axis mapped. Public ground is two overlapping spring-pond parcels, 2,238 acres between them, fronting about a third of a mile each. Elmhurst Creek comes in at river mile 11.9, and Packard Creek meets the water 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 22.9–0.0 | 56.8 | cold | — |
Wisconsin DNR has classified 56.8 of the 58 miles NHD carries for this stream — 99% 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
- Middle Branch Embarrass River fishing report — what it reads right now
- When to fish the Middle Branch Embarrass River — hatches, seasons and temperature
- How to get to the Middle Branch Embarrass River — access, parking and public land
- Middle Branch Embarrass 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
2 units of public or open-access land touch this river, 2,238 acres in total. Acreage is the whole unit, not the part beside the water.
| Unit | Owner | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| Statewide Spring Ponds | state natural-resources agency | 2,158 |
| Statewide Spring Ponds - Lm | state natural-resources agency | 80 |
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
2 named streams meet this one. Confluence miles are above the mouth; the longest twelve are listed.
Middle Branch Embarrass River sits in HUC 8 04030202, the Wolf basin, and drains 73 square miles, Strahler order 3 at the mouth. 50 NHD reaches carry the name for 57.6 miles in total — more than the 22.9 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.