BirdTrout
North Fork Clam River, Wisconsin
26 mapped river miles, draining 110 square miles, in the St Croix basin watershed. No gauge stands in it; the nearest is 34.1 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 34.1 miles away, at St. Croix River At St. Croix Falls, Wi — not a reading of this water, but of what the region is doing today.
The character of the water
The North Fork of the Clam is typed over most of its length — 40.3 of 46.18 NHD miles, 87 per cent — and the classification divides nearly evenly, 21.7 miles Cold against 18.6 Cool. Wisconsin DNR designates the water under all three of its classes, managed as wild, wild supplemented and stocked, which matches the split. These pages cannot say which end each class sits at. There is no gauge in it; the nearest is on the St Croix, 34.1 miles away. It is 13.6 feet across at the median, fifth order, draining 110.38 square miles over 26.3 mapped miles. The Clam River Fishery Area fronts 7.59 of them, with a second parcel adding a third of a mile. Sand Creek, 20.7 miles long, comes in at river mile 17.6.
Thermal classification
This is inferred, not measured. Wisconsin DNR does not publish a temperature classification for this water. What it publishes is a management tier — whether the trout in it are wild, hold over through summer, or are stocked and fished out — and the bands below are read off that tier, because a stream that sustains wild trout is a cold stream and one that does not hold fish past July is not. It is the agency's judgement of the fishery translated into the four bands this site paints everywhere else; it is not a thermometer, and where the two disagree the thermometer is right.
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 26.3–15.0 | 21.7 | cold | — |
| RM 15.0–0.0 | 18.6 | cool | — |
Wisconsin DNR has classified 40.3 of the 46 miles NHD carries for this stream — 87% of it. The typed water splits 21.7 mi cold, 18.6 mi cool. 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 Fork Clam River fishing report — what it reads right now
- When to fish the North Fork Clam River — hatches, seasons and temperature
- How to get to the North Fork Clam River — access, parking and public land
- North Fork Clam River fishing regulations — season, size and gear by reach
Wisconsin DNR classification
Wisconsin DNR classifies this water as Class I, Class II, and Class III. 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 stocked, 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 →
Public land on the river
2 units of public or open-access land touch this river, 2,576 acres in total. Acreage is the whole unit, not the part beside the water.
| Unit | Owner | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| Clam River Fishery Area | state natural-resources agency | 2,556 |
| Clam River Fishery Area 7 | state natural-resources agency | 20 |
Species
Wisconsin DNR designates this as trout water — Class I, Class II, Class III — 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
4 named streams meet this one. Confluence miles are above the mouth; the longest twelve are listed.
- Sand Creek 20.7 mi · RM 17.6
- Indian Creek 12.8 mi · RM 10.6
- Bashaw Brook 11.9 mi · RM 19.4
- Kent Creek 2.1 mi · RM 0.0
North Fork Clam River sits in HUC 8 07030001, 07030002 and 07030005, the St Croix basin, and drains 110 square miles, Strahler order 5 at the mouth. 49 NHD reaches carry the name for 46.2 miles in total — more than the 26.3 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.