BirdTrout
Middle Inlet, Wisconsin
13.6 mapped river miles, draining 66 square miles, in the Peshtigo basin watershed. No gauge stands in it; the nearest is 16.2 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 22.1 miles away, at Peshtigo River At Peshtigo, Wi — not a reading of this water, but of what the region is doing today. A closer gauge has stopped reporting — its water-temperature series is empty, and was last stamped 11 June 2026, so no number here comes from it.
The character of the water
Middle Inlet is typed almost end to end and all of it Cold: 20.1 miles, 99 per cent of its 20.22 NHD miles, under Wisconsin DNR's Class I and Class II designation, managed as wild and as wild supplemented. There is no gauge in it; the nearest is on the Menominee, 16.2 miles off, and that river's July mean belongs to the Menominee. The channel is 14.6 feet across at the median, fourth order, draining 66.19 square miles over the 13.6 miles of axis mapped. No block of public land on our map fronts it, and Wisconsin has no access file, so where the bank is open is not a question these pages can answer. Meadow Brook and Elbow Creek come in together at the head at river mile 13.6, and Plumadore Creek at 8.2.
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 13.6–0.0 | 20.1 | cold | — |
Wisconsin DNR has classified 20.1 of the 20 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 Inlet fishing report — what it reads right now
- When to fish Middle Inlet — hatches, seasons and temperature
- Middle Inlet fishing regulations — season, size and gear by reach
- Is Middle Inlet 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 →
Species
WDNR has stocked brown trout into this water 3 times between 2016 and 2017. 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
4 named streams meet this one. Confluence miles are above the mouth; the longest twelve are listed.
- Upper Middle Inlet 16.5 mi · RM 0.0
- Meadow Brook 6.7 mi · RM 13.6
- Plumadore Creek 2.1 mi · RM 8.2
- Elbow Creek 1.2 mi · RM 13.6
Middle Inlet sits in HUC 8 04030105, the Peshtigo basin, and drains 66 square miles, Strahler order 4 at the mouth. 9 NHD reaches carry the name for 20.2 miles in total — more than the 13.6 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.