BirdTrout
North Branch Pike River, Wisconsin
12.6 mapped river miles, draining 36 square miles, in the Menominee basin watershed. No gauge stands in it; the nearest is 20.8 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 live reading
The nearest gauge is 20.8 miles away, at Popple River Near Fence, Wi — not a reading of this water, but of what the region is doing today.
The character of the water
The North Branch of the Pike is Class I water under Wisconsin DNR, managed as wild, and 35.4 of its 36.2 NHD miles are typed Cold — 98 per cent, with no reach classed otherwise. A wild designation and cold typing over essentially the whole river is the strongest statement these files make about a stream. There is no gauge in it; the nearest is on the Menominee, 28.4 miles away. It is 18.3 feet across at the median, fourth order, draining 36.17 square miles over the 12.6 miles of axis mapped, and exactly 10 of those miles run inside the Pike Wild River unit, 4,753 acres of it. Beecher Creek comes in at river mile 6.0. Both the South Branch and the Pike River itself meet the water at the mouth, and both are larger.
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 12.6–0.0 | 35.4 | cold | — |
Wisconsin DNR has classified 35.4 of the 36 miles NHD carries for this stream — 98% 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
- North Branch Pike River fishing report — what it reads right now
- When to fish the North Branch Pike River — hatches, seasons and temperature
- How to get to the North Branch Pike River — access, parking and public land
- North Branch Pike River fishing regulations — season, size and gear by reach
Wisconsin DNR classification
Wisconsin DNR classifies this water as Class I. The management tier on those reaches is wild. 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, 4,753 acres in total. Acreage is the whole unit, not the part beside the water.
| Unit | Owner | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| Pike Wild River | state natural-resources agency | 4,753 |
Species
Wisconsin DNR designates this as trout water — Class I — 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.
North Branch Pike River sits in HUC 8 04030108, the Menominee basin, and drains 36 square miles, Strahler order 4 at the mouth. 41 NHD reaches carry the name for 36.2 miles in total — more than the 12.6 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.