BirdTrout
Mill Creek, Wisconsin
13.5 mapped river miles, draining 88 square miles, in the Lower Wisconsin basin watershed. No gauge stands in it; the nearest is 30.5 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 30.5 miles away, at Black Earth Ck Nr Treatment Plnt @ Cross Plains,wi — not a reading of this water, but of what the region is doing today.
The character of the water
This Mill Creek, in the Lower Wisconsin basin, is Class I and Class II water under Wisconsin DNR, managed as wild and as wild supplemented, with 29.3 of its 59.53 NHD miles typed Cold — 49 per cent, and no reach classed otherwise. Half the creek classified is half a description. There is no gauge in it and no measured temperature. The channel is 19.9 feet across at the median, fourth order, draining 87.75 square miles over the 13.5 miles of axis mapped against 59.53 in the NHD, so the mapped water is a fraction of the system. No block of public land in these files fronts it and Wisconsin has no access file. Higgins Creek comes in at river mile 10.1, Kepler Branch at 8.9 and Miller Branch at 2.6; the West Branch meets the creek 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 13.5–0.0 | 29.3 | cold | — |
Wisconsin DNR has classified 29.3 of the 60 miles NHD carries for this stream — 49% 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
- Mill Creek fishing report — what it reads right now
- When to fish Mill Creek — hatches, seasons and temperature
- Mill Creek fishing regulations — season, size and gear by reach
- Is Mill Creek good for brook trout?
- Is Mill Creek good for brown trout?
- Is Mill Creek good for rainbow 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 brook trout into this water 10 times between 2015 and 2024. 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 6 times between 2015 and 2023. 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 rainbow trout into this water 5 times between 2015 and 2019. 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
51 insects are recorded from the Wisconsin driftless, 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 Black Stonefly Allocapnia / Capnia spp. |
January–April | 34–46°F | #16–18 |
| 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 |
| Blue Quill Paraleptophlebia adoptiva |
April–May | 44–56°F | #16–18 |
| Cranefly Tipula spp. |
April–June and September–October | 40–65°F | #6–10 |
| Grannom Brachycentrus spp. |
April–May | 48–58°F | #14–16 |
| Hendrickson Ephemerella subvaria |
April–May | 45–58°F | #12–14 |
| Little Black Caddis Chimarra atterima |
April–May | 46–58°F | #16–20 |
| Caterpillar Lepidoptera larvae |
May–September | 55–75°F | #8–14 |
| Crayfish Orconectes spp. |
May–October | 55–78°F | #4–8 |
| Inchworm Geometridae |
May–June | 50–68°F | #12–16 |
| Light Cahill Maccaffertium ithaca |
May–July | 55–68°F | #12–16 |
And 37 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.
- West Branch Mill Creek 8.9 mi · RM 0.0
- Higgins Creek 3.0 mi · RM 10.1
- Kepler Branch 2.8 mi · RM 8.9
- Miller Branch 2.4 mi · RM 2.6
Mill Creek sits in HUC 8 07070005, the Lower Wisconsin basin, and drains 88 square miles, Strahler order 4 at the mouth. 118 NHD reaches carry the name for 59.5 miles in total — more than the 13.5 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.