BirdTrout
Pine Creek, Wisconsin
18.3 mapped river miles, draining 33 square miles, in the Flambeau basin watershed. No gauge stands in it; the nearest is 29.9 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 29.9 miles away, at Tyler Forks River At Stricker Road Near Mellen, Wi — not a reading of this water, but of what the region is doing today.
The character of the water
Every mile of the Flambeau basin's Pine Creek is classified — 19.0 typed against 19.08 NHD miles, 100 per cent — and the classification splits 10.3 miles Cold against 8.7 Cool. On complete coverage that split describes the creek rather than the file, though these pages cannot say which end each class sits at. Wisconsin DNR designates the water under all three of its classes, managed as wild, wild supplemented and stocked. There is no gauge in it; the nearest is on the Namekagon, 35.9 miles away. The channel is 13.4 feet across at the median, fourth order, draining 33.01 square miles over 18.3 mapped miles, of which 5.21 run inside the Price County Forest, 1.26 through the Flambeau River State Forest and 1.18 through the Chequamegon. Hay Creek, 18.8 miles long, comes in at river mile 4.9.
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 18.3–8.0 | 10.3 | cold | — |
| RM 8.0–0.0 | 8.7 | cool | — |
Wisconsin DNR has classified 19.0 of the 19.1 miles NHD carries for this stream — 100% of it. The typed water splits 10.3 mi cold, 8.7 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
- Pine Creek fishing report — what it reads right now
- When to fish Pine Creek — hatches, seasons and temperature
- How to get to Pine Creek — access, parking and public land
- Pine Creek 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
3 units of public or open-access land touch this river, 1,137,679 acres in total. Acreage is the whole unit, not the part beside the water.
| Unit | Owner | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| Price County Forest | county land | 94,694 |
| Flambeau River State Forest | state natural-resources agency | 94,489 |
| Chequamegon National Forest | U.S. Forest Service | 948,495 |
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
3 named streams meet this one. Confluence miles are above the mouth; the longest twelve are listed.
Pine Creek sits in HUC 8 07050002, 07050003 and 07050004, the Flambeau basin, and drains 33 square miles, Strahler order 4 at the mouth. 50 NHD reaches carry the name for 19.1 miles in total — more than the 18.3 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.