BirdTrout
West Fork Kickapoo River, Wisconsin
13.7 mapped river miles, draining 116 square miles, in the Kickapoo basin watershed. No gauge stands in it; the nearest is 26.1 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 26.1 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
Wisconsin DNR has typed 25.6 miles of the West Fork Kickapoo as Cold, 92 per cent of its 27.7 NHD miles, and designates the water under two classes at once — Class I and Class II, managed as wild and as wild supplemented. There is no gauge in it and so no measured temperature. The channel is 20.1 feet across at the median and fifth order, draining 115.52 square miles over the 13.7 miles of axis this site maps. What it does not have is public ground: one block, 44 acres, fronting a third of a mile of bank. Six named tributaries come in along its length — Seas Branch at the head, then Rocky Run, Elk Run, Birds Creek and Bishop Branch through the middle, and Harrison Creek a mile above the mouth, which is also where the Kickapoo River itself meets the water.
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 13.7–0.0 | 25.6 | cold | — |
Wisconsin DNR has classified 25.6 of the 28 miles NHD carries for this stream — 92% 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.
Named stretches
Anglers name parts of this river. These are the names two or more independent sources use; each page says which sources, because a nickname is the one thing on this site that is not a measurement.
- The West Fork — Twenty-odd miles of spring-fed Coulee Country water above and below Avalanche, held open to anglers in large part by the West Fork Sports Club's leases and habitat work.
Questions about this river
- West Fork Kickapoo River fishing report — what it reads right now
- When to fish the West Fork Kickapoo River — hatches, seasons and temperature
- How to get to the West Fork Kickapoo River — access, parking and public land
- West Fork Kickapoo River fishing regulations — season, size and gear by reach
- Is the West Fork Kickapoo River good for brook 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
1 unit of public or open-access land touches this river, 44 acres in total. Acreage is the whole unit, not the part beside the water.
| Unit | Owner | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| Rem-West Fork Kickapoo River | state natural-resources agency | 44 |
Species
WDNR has stocked brook trout into this water 11 times between 2015 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.
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
7 named streams meet this one. Confluence miles are above the mouth; the longest twelve are listed.
- Kickapoo River 134.7 mi · RM 0.0
- Seas Branch 7.7 mi · RM 13.7
- Bishop Branch 6.5 mi · RM 6.1
- Harrison Creek 5.0 mi · RM 1.0
- Elk Run 3.7 mi · RM 8.7
- Rocky Run 3.3 mi · RM 9.7
- Birds Creek 2.2 mi · RM 7.9
West Fork Kickapoo River sits in HUC 8 07070006, the Kickapoo basin, and drains 116 square miles, Strahler order 5 at the mouth. 60 NHD reaches carry the name for 27.7 miles in total — more than the 13.7 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.