BirdTrout
Wolf Creek, Wisconsin
13.5 mapped river miles, draining 18 square miles, in the St Croix basin watershed. No gauge stands in it; the nearest is 6.8 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 6.8 miles away, at St. Croix River At St. Croix Falls, Wi — not a reading of this water, but of what the region is doing today.
The character of the water
Wolf Creek is Class I and Class II water under Wisconsin DNR, managed as wild and as wild supplemented, and the thermal classification reaches a fifth of it: 4.2 miles typed Cold out of 20.31 NHD miles, 21 per cent, with nothing classed otherwise. There is no gauge in it; the nearest is on the St Croix, 6.8 miles away, which is close but is a far larger and warmer river. The creek is 7.5 feet across at the median, third order, draining 18.32 square miles over the 13.5 miles of axis mapped. The Governor Knowles State Forest fronts 1.48 miles of it. No named tributary is recorded entering along the length.
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 4.2–0.0 | 4.2 | cold | — |
Wisconsin DNR has classified 4.2 of the 20 miles NHD carries for this stream — 21% 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
- Wolf Creek fishing report — what it reads right now
- When to fish Wolf Creek — hatches, seasons and temperature
- How to get to Wolf Creek — access, parking and public land
- Wolf Creek fishing regulations — season, size and gear by reach
- Is Wolf Creek 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
1 unit of public or open-access land touches this river, 21,627 acres in total. Acreage is the whole unit, not the part beside the water.
| Unit | Owner | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| Governor Knowles State Forest | state natural-resources agency | 21,627 |
Species
WDNR has stocked brown trout into this water 7 times between 2015 and 2021. 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
Wolf Creek sits in HUC 8 07030001, 07030002 and 07030005, the St Croix basin, and drains 18 square miles, Strahler order 3 at the mouth. 44 NHD reaches carry the name for 20.3 miles in total — more than the 13.5 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.