BirdTroutOpen the map Is the Oconto River good for brook trout?
Not in midsummer, and not everywhere. WDNR has stocked brook trout into the Oconto River across 14 recorded plants, between 2015 and 2024, but the river's measured July mean of 74.7 °F is above the 68 °F upper limit for this fish, so the water that holds it is the cold tributary mouths and the spring-fed stretches rather than the mainstem in July. That is a stocking record and not a survey: it says WDNR put the fish in, not that anyone has since found one holding over. Fish of 6–11 inches are what Wisconsin reports as typical.
What the state's records say
- Species
- Brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis)
- In Wisconsin
- native
- Record here
- stocked — no survey record on this water
- Holds in
- 53–61 °F, stops feeding above 68 °F
- Typical
- 6–11 inches
- Spawns
- October and November, on gravel in groundwater-fed shallows, often at the mouths of seeps rather than in the main current.
Native, and the driftless spring creeks and the northern forest headwaters hold it in different country: karst springs in the south, tannic sand and gravel in the north.
Is the water cold enough
Measured, not modelled: 1 gauged stretch of this river average 74.7 °F in July , against the 53–61 °F this fish holds in and the 68 °F it stops feeding at.
| Gauge | Now | July mean |
|---|---|---|
| Oconto | 61.9 °F | 74.7 °F |
What you may keep
Wisconsin DNR classifies this water as Class II, Class III. The management tier on those reaches is stocked, wild supplemented. This is a designation of the fishery and not the season and creel rules.
WDNR trout stream classification → Wisconsin season and creel rules →
What to fish for it
- Fish Eggs — October–January and April, #10–16
- Little Brown Stonefly — February–April, #12–16
- Blue-Winged Olive — March–May and September–November, #16–22
- Blackfly — April–June, #18–22
- Cranefly — April–June and September–October, #6–10
- Grannom — April–May, #14–16
- Green Rock Worm / Green Weenie — April–June and September–October, #10–14
- Hendrickson — April–May, #12–14
The insects recorded from this river's region, earliest first. The full calendar →
More about Oconto River
Oconto River — live water temperature, regulations and access