BirdTrout
Trempealeau River, Wisconsin
9.9 mapped river miles, draining 106 square miles, in the Trempealeau basin watershed. No gauge stands in it; the nearest is 34.4 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 34.4 miles away, at Silver Creek At State Highway 21 Near Angelo, Wi — not a reading of this water, but of what the region is doing today.
The character of the water
The Trempealeau is typed over about a third of its length — 21.0 of 59.52 NHD miles, 35 per cent — and the classification runs 12.6 miles Cold against 8.4 Cool. A third of the river classified is a sample and these pages cannot say which end each class falls on. Wisconsin DNR designates the water Class II and Class III, managed as wild supplemented and as stocked. There is no gauge in it and no measured temperature. The channel is 25.8 feet across at the median, fifth order, draining 105.59 square miles over just 9.9 miles of mapped axis. Public ground is four parcels — the Trempealeau River Meadows natural area and a further natural area covering the same 1.13 miles, and two scattered wildlife parcels covering the same 0.64. Keller Creek comes in at the head at river mile 9.9.
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 9.9–9.9 | 5.4 | cold | — |
| RM 9.9–9.9 | 1.3 | cool | — |
| RM 9.9–9.9 | 0.8 | cold | — |
| RM 9.9–9.9 | 0.7 | cool | — |
| RM 9.9–9.9 | 6.4 | cold | — |
| RM 9.9–9.9 | 6.4 | cool | — |
Wisconsin DNR has classified 21.0 of the 60 miles NHD carries for this stream — 35% of it. The typed water splits 12.6 mi cold, 8.4 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
- Trempealeau River fishing report — what it reads right now
- When to fish the Trempealeau River — hatches, seasons and temperature
- How to get to the Trempealeau River — access, parking and public land
- Trempealeau River fishing regulations — season, size and gear by reach
- Is the Trempealeau River good for brook trout?
- Is the Trempealeau River good for brown 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
4 units of public or open-access land touch this river, 7,600 acres in total. Acreage is the whole unit, not the part beside the water.
| Unit | Owner | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| Natural Area | county land | 3,372 |
| Trempealeau River Meadows State Natural Area | state natural-resources agency | 412 |
| Scattered Wildlife | county land | 1,976 |
| Scattered Wildlife - Wd | state natural-resources agency | 1,840 |
Species
WDNR has stocked brook trout into this water 9 times between 2015 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.
WDNR has stocked brown trout into this water 3 times between 2015 and 2017. 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.
- Keller Creek 2.1 mi · RM 9.9
Trempealeau River sits in HUC 8 07040005, the Trempealeau basin, and drains 106 square miles, Strahler order 5 at the mouth. 76 NHD reaches carry the name for 59.5 miles in total — more than the 9.9 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.