BirdTrout
Mullet River, Wisconsin
20 mapped river miles, draining 77 square miles, in the Lakeshore basin watershed. No gauge stands in it; the nearest is 27.8 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 gauge, and why there is no reading from it
The nearest gauge, 27.8 miles away at Manitowoc River At Manitowoc, Wi, is not reporting water temperature: USGS carries no water-temperature series for it at all. A stopped gauge repeats its last value in silence, so there is no live temperature here. What is below is modelled from the years that gauge did report: this gauge's own fitted line, its intercept plus its slope against the 3-day mean air temperature over it, fitted on its own daily record, ±3.3 °F. The shape of the week at that gauge, not a thermometer in this stream.
The character of the water
The Mullet is Class II water under Wisconsin DNR, managed as wild supplemented, and the thermal classification reaches a fifth of it: 7.2 miles typed Cold out of 33.82 NHD miles, 21 per cent, with nothing classed otherwise. There is no gauge in it; the nearest is on the Fox, 33.2 miles away. It runs 19.9 feet across at the median, fourth order, draining 77.49 square miles over the 20.5 miles of axis mapped. Public ground here is eight small pieces totalling 83 acres — Meyer Nature Park at 41 acres fronting 0.6 of a mile, a remnant parcel at 0.52, and five town parks of one to three acres each fronting a few hundred feet. LaBudde Creek comes in at the head at river mile 20.5 and Jackson Creek at 18.3.
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 20.5–17.6 | 7.2 | cold | — |
Wisconsin DNR has classified 7.2 of the 34 miles NHD carries for this stream — 21% 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
- Mullet River fishing report — what it reads right now
- When to fish the Mullet River — hatches, seasons and temperature
- How to get to the Mullet River — access, parking and public land
- Mullet River fishing regulations — season, size and gear by reach
- Is the Mullet River good for brown trout?
Wisconsin DNR classification
Wisconsin DNR classifies this water as Class II. The management tier on those reaches is 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
8 units of public or open-access land touch this river, 83 acres in total. Acreage is the whole unit, not the part beside the water.
| Unit | Owner | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| Meyer Nature Park | city land | 41 |
| Rem-Areas-Mullet River | state natural-resources agency | 24 |
| Henry Huson Park | city land | 3 |
| Bade Utility Park | city land | 2 |
| Stayer Junior Park | city land | 1 |
| Anton Park | city land | 1 |
| Plymouth Field Station | state natural-resources agency | 9 |
| Veterans Park | city land | 3 |
Species
WDNR has stocked brown trout into this water 11 times between 2016 and 2025. 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
2 named streams meet this one. Confluence miles are above the mouth; the longest twelve are listed.
Mullet River sits in HUC 8 04030101, 04030102, 04030103, 04030203, 04030204 and 04190000, the Lakeshore basin, and drains 77 square miles, Strahler order 4 at the mouth. 41 NHD reaches carry the name for 33.8 miles in total — more than the 20.5 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.