BirdTroutOpen the map Is the Oconto River good for brown trout?
Yes, with a caveat. WDNR has stocked brown trout into the Oconto River across 38 recorded plants, between 2015 and 2025, and the river's measured July mean of 74.7 °F runs above the 54–66 °F this fish prefers but below the 75 °F it stops feeding at — so the cold stretches carry it and the warm ones are marginal in high summer. 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 8–16 inches are what Wisconsin reports as typical.
What the state's records say
- Species
- Brown trout (Salmo trutta)
- In Wisconsin
- introduced
- Record here
- stocked — no survey record on this water
- Holds in
- 54–66 °F, stops feeding above 75 °F
- Typical
- 8–16 inches
- Spawns
- Late October into December, on gravel riffles, later in the season than the rainbow and overlapping the brook trout.
Introduced in the 1880s and now the fish most driftless spring creeks are managed for, reproducing without help across most of that footprint.
Is the water cold enough
Measured, not modelled: 1 gauged stretch of this river average 74.7 °F in July , against the 54–66 °F this fish holds in and the 75 °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