BirdTrout

Bad-Montreal Watershed, Wisconsin

2,099 miles of mapped stream across 1,301 square miles of drainage in Ashland, Iron, Bayfield counties, in 122 named streams. Wisconsin designates 698 of those miles as trout water, on 99 streams. The 2 mainstem gauges with a July record read between 69.8 and 73.8°F in July.

Open in BirdTrout
Map key
Public land — where the bank is open to walk and fish
USGS gauge — live water temperature
Water temperature — the colour of every stream in the basin

50°F and colder is cold, through cold-transitional and cool, to warm above 70°F — the same four bands the app paints. On this map the colour is Wisconsin DNR's own classification of the stream, not a measurement, except at the gauge dots, which read live. Grey is water Wisconsin DNR has not typed.

The watershed in numbers

HUC8 04010302 in the USGS Watershed Boundary Dataset. Every figure below adds up the river pages in this basin — same records, one basin at a time.

2,099 mi
of mapped stream
4,246 NHD reaches
1,301 sq mi
drainage area
832,905 acres
69.8–73.8°F
July water temperature at the gauges
2 mainstem gauges, mean 71.8°F
303,514 ac
public land
36.4% of the basin · 12 units

Cold, cool and warm water

WDNR's trout stream classification, which types the stream by the trout population it supports rather than by measuring the water — every reach it calls Class I, II or III carries WDNR's own cold designation. It covers 27% of this basin's stream miles (562.2 of 2,099); the rest is untyped and is drawn grey on the map above.

562.2 of the 562.2 typed miles in this basin — 100% — are cold or cold-transitional water. Every typed reach carries the same class, which is as likely to be the coverage as the water: Wisconsin DNR has typed 27% of it.

What makes this watershed distinctive

The Bad-Montreal drains the Penokee range into Lake Superior, and it is one of the most thoroughly designated basins in Wisconsin: 698 of its 2,099 mapped stream miles are trout water, on 99 of 122 named streams, and 562 miles are classified cold. The White River runs 74.4 miles at Class I and II, the Bad 68.5 at Class II and III, the Montreal 57.2 along the Michigan line, and the Marengo 55.1; Tyler Forks and the Potato, at 39.3 and 40.1 miles, both carry Class II and III water. Public ground is 303,514 acres — 36% of the basin — with 175,093 acres of Chequamegon National Forest and 116,009 of Iron County Forest. The basin covers 1,301 square miles of Ashland, Iron and Bayfield counties. No gauge here holds a July temperature record.

Every named stream in the basin

All 122 of them, longest first. 71 have a page of their own and are linked; the rest are in the app. The class column is Wisconsin DNR's designation of that stream. "Now" is the live USGS reading where a gauge stands in that stream.

Stream Miles Class Now Designation
White River 74.4 Cold — Class I, Class II
Bad River 68.5 Cold — Class II, Class III
Montreal River 57.2 Cold — Class II, Class III
Marengo River 55.1 Cold — Class II, Class III
Potato River 40.1 Cold — Class II, Class III
Tyler Forks 39.3 Cold — Class II, Class III
Brunsweiler River 30.8 Cold — Class II, Class III
Long Lake Branch 29.0 Cold — Class I
Vaughn Creek 18.5 Cold — Class II, Class III
Eighteenmile Creek 16.8 Cold — Class I
West Fork Montreal River 15.9 Cold — Class II
Laymans Creek 14.2 untyped — Class III
Alder Creek 13.8 Cold — Class I, Class III
Twentymile Creek 12.9 Cold — Class I, Class II
Boomer Creek 11.7 Cold — Class II
Iron River 11.6 Cold — Class II, Class III
Silver Creek 10.9 Cold — Class II, Class III
Deer Creek 10.6 Cold — Class II
Mud Creek 10.0 Cold — Class II
Trout Brook 9.9 Cold — Class II, Class III
Billy Creek 9.3 Cold — Class I, Class II
Montreal Creek 8.1 Cold — Class II, Class III
Spring Brook 8.1 Cold — Class I
Morgan Creek 7.6 Cold — Class II
Welch Creek 7.5 untyped — —
Pre-emption Creek 7.4 Cold — Class II
Elm Creek 7.2 Cold — Class II
Fourche Creek 6.8 Cold — Class I, Class III
Devils Creek 6.7 Cold — Class I
Spillerberg Creek 6.6 Cold — Class II
Minnie Creek 6.4 Cold — Class II
Oronto Creek 6.3 Cold — Class I, Class III
Sugarbush Creek 6.3 untyped — —
Minnow Creek 6.1 Cold — Class II
Morrison Creek 6.0 untyped — —
Parker Creek 6.0 untyped — Class III
Happy Creek 5.7 Cold — Class II
Krause Creek 5.7 Cold — Class I
Brush Creek 5.6 Cold — Class II
Shine Creek 5.5 Cold — Class II, Class III
Hanson Creek 5.5 untyped — Class III
Rock Creek 5.5 Cold — Class II
Graveyard Creek 5.5 Cold — Class I
Johnson Creek 5.3 untyped — Class III
Flood Creek 5.2 Cold — Class I, Class II
Turntable Creek 5.0 untyped — Class III
Whisky Creek 4.9 Cold — Class II, Class III
East River 4.8 untyped — —
Apple Creek 4.7 Cold — Class I
Sullivan Creek 4.7 Cold — Class II
North Branch Lawrence Creek 4.6 untyped — —
Spoon Creek 4.6 untyped — Class III
McCarthy Creek 4.5 Cold — Class II
South Fork White River 4.5 Cold — Class I
Jader Creek 4.4 Cold — Class II
Hawkins Creek 4.3 Cold — Class I
Sturgeon Branch 4.2 untyped — Class III
Wazhashki-ziibiins 4.1 Cold — Class II
Lawrence Creek 4.1 Cold — Class II
Edies Creek 4.0 untyped — —
Chase Creek 4.0 Cold — Class II, Class III
Denomie Creek 4.0 untyped — —
Erickson Creek 3.9 Cold — Class II
Opergard Creek 3.8 Cold — Class II
Moore Creek 3.7 Cold — Class II
Camp Four Creek 3.7 Cold — Class II
Ballou Creek 3.7 Cold — Class I
Barr Creek 3.7 Cold — Class I
Ramstead Creek 3.7 untyped — —
Norman Creek 3.5 Cold — Class II
Freburg Creek 3.5 Cold — Class I
Kern Creek 3.5 Cold — Class II
Fifield Creek 3.4 untyped — —
Rins Creek 3.4 Cold — Class II
Thornapple Creek 3.4 untyped — —
Whitney Creek 3.3 untyped — —
West Fork White River 3.3 untyped — —
Mead Creek 3.1 Cold — Class II
Feldcher Creek 3.1 Cold — Class II
City Creek 3.1 Cold — Class II
Hardscrabble Creek 3.1 Cold — Class II
Spider Creek 3.1 untyped — —
Troutmere Creek 3.1 Cold — Class I
Lake One Creek 3.0 untyped — —
Javorsky Creek 3.0 Cold — Class I
Bolen Creek 3.0 Cold — Class I
Nawago Creek 2.9 untyped — —
Hell Hole Creek 2.8 untyped — —
Bell Creek 2.8 Cold — Class I
Linnunpuro Creek 2.7 untyped — Class III
Kurikka Creek 2.7 Cold — Class II
Spring Creek 2.7 untyped — Class III
LeClair Creek 2.7 Cold — Class I
Vogue Creek 2.7 Cold — Class II
Frames Creek 2.7 Cold — Class II
Little Spring Creek 2.7 untyped — —
Scott-Taylor Creek 2.6 Cold — Class II
Mineral Creek 2.6 untyped — Class III
Winks Creek 2.6 Cold — Class II
Whiskers Creek 2.5 untyped — —
Bull Gus Creek 2.5 untyped — Class III
Cominski Creek 2.4 Cold — Class I
Camp Six Creek 2.4 untyped — —
Blaser Creek 2.4 Cold — Class II
Kaari Creek 2.3 Cold — Class II
Rouse Creek 2.3 untyped — Class III
Gehrman Creek 2.3 Cold — Class II
East Fork White River 2.1 untyped — Class I
Rocky Run 2.0 untyped — Class III
Collins Creek 1.8 Cold — Class II
Knab Creek 1.8 Cold — Class II
Dunn Creek 1.7 untyped — Class III
Porcupine Creek 1.7 untyped — —
Carpenter Creek 1.7 untyped — Class III
Tafelski Creek 1.3 Cold — Class II
Toskis Creek 1.3 untyped — —
Waboo Creek 1.2 Cold — Class II
Gravelly Brook 0.8 untyped — Class III
Sandrock Creek 0.4 untyped — Class III
Schramm Creek 0.3 untyped — —
Camerons Creek 0.2 untyped — —
Meadow Creek 0.0 Cold — Class II

Public land in the watershed

303,514 acres in 12 units, which is 36.4% of the 832,905 acres the basin covers. Private inholdings carried in the same source file are excluded, here and on the map.

Managing agency Acres Share Units
US Forest Service 175,093 58% 2
County forest 125,677 41% 3
Wisconsin DNR 2,744 1% 7

The biggest named blocks of it, each with its own page — the streams on that ground, what is open to hunt on it, and where the access sites are.

Best time to fish

The hatch calendar for northern Wisconsin, which is the region this basin's centre falls in — the same regions the app's hatch panel uses. It is a regional record, not a survey of this watershed: nobody has counted insects basin by basin. Year-round records (midges, scuds, sculpins) are left out; they are true every month and they are not what a calendar is for.

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

42 insects are recorded from northern Wisconsin. Each links to its own page, with the flies that imitate it.

Neighbouring watersheds

The subbasins that share a boundary with this one and carry coldwater streams.