BirdTroutOpen the map Is the Oconto River good for rainbow trout?
Yes, with a caveat. WDNR has stocked rainbow trout into the Oconto River across 28 recorded plants, between 2015 and 2025, and the river's measured July mean of 74.7 °F runs above the 55–65 °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
- Rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss)
- In Wisconsin
- introduced
- Record here
- stocked — no survey record on this water
- Holds in
- 55–65 °F, stops feeding above 75 °F
- Typical
- 8–16 inches
- Spawns
- Spring — March into May — on gravel, which is what separates it from the two autumn spawners above.
Introduced, and the least widely reproducing of Wisconsin's three stream trout: stocked broadly, wild in a smaller share of the classified water than brown or brook.
Is the water cold enough
Measured, not modelled: 1 gauged stretch of this river average 74.7 °F in July , against the 55–65 °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