BirdTrout
Wausaukee River, Wisconsin
29 mapped river miles, draining 57 square miles, in the Menominee basin watershed. No gauge stands in it; the nearest is 20.2 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 Peshtigo River At Peshtigo, Wi — not a reading of this water, but of what the region is doing today. A closer gauge has stopped reporting — its water-temperature series is empty, and was last stamped 11 June 2026, so no number here comes from it.
The character of the water
The Wausaukee is typed end to end and all of it Cold: 29.4 miles, 99 per cent of its 29.67 NHD miles, under Wisconsin DNR's Class I and Class II designation, managed as wild and as wild supplemented. Coverage that complete with a single class means the file describes the whole river the same way. There is no gauge in it; the nearest is on the Menominee, 20.2 miles away. The channel is 14.5 feet across at the median, fourth order, draining 56.89 square miles over 29.4 miles of mapped axis. The Marinette County Forest fronts 8.15 miles of it, with a small state habitat area adding three-tenths. Little Wausaukee Creek comes in at river mile 4.8, Coldwater Brook at 14.1 and Heubler Creek at 19.0.
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 29.4–0.0 | 29.4 | cold | — |
Wisconsin DNR has classified 29.4 of the 30 miles NHD carries for this stream — 99% 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
- Wausaukee River fishing report — what it reads right now
- When to fish the Wausaukee River — hatches, seasons and temperature
- How to get to the Wausaukee River — access, parking and public land
- Wausaukee River fishing regulations — season, size and gear by reach
- Is the Wausaukee River good for brown trout?
Wisconsin DNR classification
Wisconsin DNR classifies this water as Class I and Class II. 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 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
2 units of public or open-access land touch this river, 239,788 acres in total. Acreage is the whole unit, not the part beside the water.
| Unit | Owner | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| Marinette County Forest | county land | 239,764 |
| Wausaukee River State Habitat Area | state natural-resources agency | 23 |
Species
WDNR has stocked brown trout into this water 10 times between 2016 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
3 named streams meet this one. Confluence miles are above the mouth; the longest twelve are listed.
- Little Wausaukee Creek 7.8 mi · RM 4.8
- Heubler Creek 2.0 mi · RM 19.0
- Coldwater Brook 1.7 mi · RM 14.1
Wausaukee River sits in HUC 8 04030108, the Menominee basin, and drains 57 square miles, Strahler order 4 at the mouth. 24 NHD reaches carry the name for 29.7 miles in total — more than the 29.4 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.