BirdTrout
Trimbelle River, Wisconsin
18.7 mapped river miles, draining 85 square miles, in the Rush Vermillion basin watershed. No gauge stands in it; the nearest is 17.5 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 17.5 miles away, at Eau Galle River At Spring Valley, Wi — not a reading of this water, but of what the region is doing today.
The character of the water
The Trimbelle is Class II water under Wisconsin DNR, managed as wild supplemented, with 26.6 of its 30.64 NHD miles typed Cold — 87 per cent, and no reach classed otherwise. Coverage that high with a single class means the file describes most of the river and describes it the same way throughout. There is no gauge in it and no measured temperature. The channel is 20.6 feet across at the median, fourth order, draining 85.47 square miles over the 18.7 miles of axis mapped. The public ground is a streambank easement holding 3.79 miles of the river — a fifth of the mapped length as bank rather than as block — with a county easement adding a fraction more. Little Trimbelle Creek, 12.6 miles long, comes in at river mile 3.3.
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 18.7–1.0 | 26.6 | cold | — |
Wisconsin DNR has classified 26.6 of the 31 miles NHD carries for this stream — 87% 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
- Trimbelle River fishing report — what it reads right now
- When to fish the Trimbelle River — hatches, seasons and temperature
- How to get to the Trimbelle River — access, parking and public land
- Trimbelle River fishing regulations — season, size and gear by reach
- Is the Trimbelle River good for brook trout?
- Is the Trimbelle River good for brown 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
2 units of public or open-access land touch this river, 467 acres in total. Acreage is the whole unit, not the part beside the water.
| Unit | Owner | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| Streambank Easement Program | another state agency | 356 |
| Pierce County, Wi Easement | local holder not recorded | 111 |
Species
WDNR has stocked brook trout into this water 2 times between 2018 and 2019. 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 13 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.
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
2 named streams meet this one. Confluence miles are above the mouth; the longest twelve are listed.
Trimbelle River sits in HUC 8 07040001, the Rush Vermillion basin, and drains 85 square miles, Strahler order 4 at the mouth. 63 NHD reaches carry the name for 30.6 miles in total — more than the 18.7 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.