BirdTrout
Sugar River, Wisconsin
16.3 mapped river miles, draining 151 square miles, in the Sugar basin watershed. A USGS gauge stands in it, but its record is too short for a measured July mean, so what this page knows about its temperature is today's reading and 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
This gauge stands in the Sugar River. Its record is too short for a July mean, so the class below is Wisconsin DNR's — but the reading is this water.
The character of the water
The Sugar is Class II water under Wisconsin DNR, managed as wild supplemented, with 37.4 of its 55.04 NHD miles typed Cold — 68 per cent, and no reach classed otherwise. There is no gauge in it and no measured temperature. The channel is 15.4 feet across at the median, fifth order, draining 150.55 square miles over the 16.3 miles of axis mapped. Public ground is five pieces and none of them large against the river: the Sugar River Wetlands natural area fronting 0.78 of a mile, a further natural area 0.58, a named parcel 0.57, Stream Bank Protection Fee Program land 0.4 and a statewide natural area 0.2 — about two and a half miles of frontage in all. No named tributary is recorded; Badger Mill Creek meets the river at the mouth.
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 16.3–0.0 | 37.4 | cold | — |
Wisconsin DNR has classified 37.4 of the 55 miles NHD carries for this stream — 68% of it. Every typed reach carries the same class, 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
- Sugar River fishing report — what it reads right now
- When to fish the Sugar River — hatches, seasons and temperature
- How to get to the Sugar River — access, parking and public land
- Sugar River fishing regulations — season, size and gear by reach
- Is the Sugar River good for brook trout?
- Is the Sugar River good for brown trout?
- Is the Sugar River good for rainbow trout?
Wisconsin DNR classification
Wisconsin DNR classifies this water as Class II. The management tier on those reaches is 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
5 units of public or open-access land touch this river, 9,061 acres in total. Acreage is the whole unit, not the part beside the water.
| Unit | Owner | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| Sugar River Wetlands State Natural Area | state natural-resources agency | 266 |
| Natural Area | county land | 4,873 |
| Sugar River - Pellitteri | county land | 33 |
| Stream Bank Protection Fee Program | state natural-resources agency | 3,741 |
| Statewide Natural Area | state natural-resources agency | 148 |
Species
WDNR has stocked brook trout into this water 2 times between 2021 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 brown trout into this water 4 times between 2018 and 2024. 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 8 times between 2017 and 2025. 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
51 insects are recorded from the Wisconsin driftless, 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 Black Stonefly Allocapnia / Capnia spp. |
January–April | 34–46°F | #16–18 |
| 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 |
| Blue Quill Paraleptophlebia adoptiva |
April–May | 44–56°F | #16–18 |
| Cranefly Tipula spp. |
April–June and September–October | 40–65°F | #6–10 |
| Grannom Brachycentrus spp. |
April–May | 48–58°F | #14–16 |
| Hendrickson Ephemerella subvaria |
April–May | 45–58°F | #12–14 |
| Little Black Caddis Chimarra atterima |
April–May | 46–58°F | #16–20 |
| Caterpillar Lepidoptera larvae |
May–September | 55–75°F | #8–14 |
| Crayfish Orconectes spp. |
May–October | 55–78°F | #4–8 |
| Inchworm Geometridae |
May–June | 50–68°F | #12–16 |
| Light Cahill Maccaffertium ithaca |
May–July | 55–68°F | #12–16 |
And 37 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
1 named stream meets this one. Confluence miles are above the mouth; the longest twelve are listed.
Sugar River sits in HUC 8 07090004, the Sugar basin, and drains 151 square miles, Strahler order 5 at the mouth. 83 NHD reaches carry the name for 55.0 miles in total — more than the 16.3 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.