BirdTrout
Spirit River, Wisconsin
16.7 mapped river miles, draining 145 square miles, in the Upper Wisconsin basin watershed.
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 character of the water
The Spirit is typed over about half its length — 15.4 of 31.15 NHD miles, 49 per cent — and the classification divides exactly: 7.7 miles Cold against 7.7 Cool. Wisconsin DNR designates the water Class II and Class III, managed as wild supplemented and as stocked, which agrees with the even split; these pages cannot say which end each class sits at. There is no gauge in it and no measured temperature. The channel is 16 feet across at the median, fourth order, draining 145.03 square miles over the 16.7 miles of axis mapped. Public ground is chiefly the Lincoln County Forest's public fishing grounds, fronting 2.14 miles, with two scattered-forest parcels adding about three-tenths each. Spirit Creek comes in at river mile 14.8.
Thermal classification
There is no USGS gauge within 40 miles of this stream in the record this site holds, so there is no live temperature on this page and no measured July mean. Everything below the bar is Wisconsin DNR's own classification of the water.
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 16.7–15.9 | 3.9 | cool | — |
| RM 16.7–16.7 | 1.7 | cold | — |
| RM 16.7–16.7 | 0.7 | cool | — |
| RM 16.7–16.7 | 2.2 | cold | — |
| RM 16.7–16.7 | 0.6 | cool | — |
| RM 16.7–16.7 | 3.8 | cold | — |
| RM 16.7–14.8 | 2.5 | cool | — |
Wisconsin DNR has classified 15.4 of the 31 miles NHD carries for this stream — 49% of it. The typed water splits 7.7 mi cool, 7.7 mi cold. 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
- Spirit River fishing report — what it reads right now
- When to fish the Spirit River — hatches, seasons and temperature
- How to get to the Spirit River — access, parking and public land
- Spirit River fishing regulations — season, size and gear by reach
- Is the Spirit River good for brown trout?
- Is the Spirit River good for rainbow trout?
Wisconsin DNR classification
Wisconsin DNR classifies this water as 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 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, 116,891 acres in total. Acreage is the whole unit, not the part beside the water.
| Unit | Owner | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| Lincoln County Forest - Public Fishing Grounds | county land | 105,325 |
| Scattered Forest Lands | state natural-resources agency | 7,457 |
| Scattered Forest Land - Nw | state natural-resources agency | 4,109 |
Species
WDNR has stocked brown trout into this water 10 times between 2015 and 2022. That is a stocking record rather than a survey — it says the fish were put in, not that a survey has found them since.
WDNR has stocked rainbow trout into this water once, in 2015. That is a stocking record rather than a survey — it says the fish were put in, not that a survey has found them since.
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.
- Spirit Creek 9.7 mi · RM 14.8
- Coffee Creek 6.1 mi · RM 4.7
- Armstrong Creek 5.9 mi · RM 7.3
Spirit River sits in HUC 8 07070001, the Upper Wisconsin basin, and drains 145 square miles, Strahler order 4 at the mouth. 42 NHD reaches carry the name for 31.1 miles in total — more than the 16.7 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.