BirdTrout
North Branch Pine River, Wisconsin
16.3 mapped river miles, draining 35 square miles, in the Menominee basin watershed. No gauge stands in it; the nearest is 23.4 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 23.4 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 Menominee basin's North Branch of the Pine runs almost wholly through national forest: 16.26 of the 16.3 miles of axis mapped lie inside the Nicolet, which is as near total as public frontage gets. Wisconsin DNR designates the water Class II, manages it as wild supplemented, and has typed 16.8 miles of it as Cold — 100 per cent of its 16.87 NHD miles, with no reach classed otherwise. There is no gauge in it and no measured temperature; the class is a classification and this page has no thermometer behind it. The channel is 17.2 feet across at the median, third order, draining 34.9 square miles. Howell Creek, the only named tributary, comes in high at river mile 13.6.
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 16.3–0.0 | 16.8 | cold | — |
Wisconsin DNR has classified 16.8 of the 16.9 miles NHD carries for this stream — 100% 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 Pine River fishing report — what it reads right now
- When to fish the North Branch Pine River — hatches, seasons and temperature
- How to get to the North Branch Pine River — access, parking and public land
- North Branch Pine River fishing regulations — season, size and gear by reach
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
1 unit of public or open-access land touches this river, 744,473 acres in total. Acreage is the whole unit, not the part beside the water.
| Unit | Owner | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| Nicolet National Forest | U.S. Forest Service | 744,473 |
Species
Wisconsin DNR designates this as trout water — 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
1 named stream meets this one. Confluence miles are above the mouth; the longest twelve are listed.
- Howell Creek 1.7 mi · RM 13.6
North Branch Pine River sits in HUC 8 04030108, the Menominee basin, and drains 35 square miles, Strahler order 3 at the mouth. 36 NHD reaches carry the name for 16.9 miles in total — more than the 16.3 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.