BirdTrout

Beartrap-Nemadji Watershed, Wisconsin

2,597 miles of mapped stream across 1,843 square miles of drainage in Bayfield, Douglas, Ashland counties, in 98 named streams. Wisconsin designates 521 of those miles as trout water, on 70 streams. The 2 mainstem gauges with a July record read between 61.1 and 66.4°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 04010301 in the USGS Watershed Boundary Dataset. Every figure below adds up the river pages in this basin — same records, one basin at a time.

2,597 mi
of mapped stream
4,245 NHD reaches
1,843 sq mi
drainage area
1,179,281 acres
61.1–66.4°F
July water temperature at the gauges
2 mainstem gauges, mean 63.8°F
390,837 ac
public land
33.1% of the basin · 20 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 19% of this basin's stream miles (493.7 of 2,597); the rest is untyped and is drawn grey on the map above.

493.7 of the 493.7 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 19% of it.

What makes this watershed distinctive

This is the Lake Superior south-shore basin, and the Bois Brule runs 53.4 miles through it as Class I water — WDNR's top classification, wild trout supported without stocking, over the whole length the file covers. Behind it the Black River runs 36.7 miles at Class III, the Amnicon 33.5 undesignated, and Balsam Creek 28.7 miles carrying all three classes. WDNR designates 521 of the basin's 844 mapped stream miles as trout water on 70 of its 98 named streams, and classifies 559 miles of it cold. Public ground is 390,837 acres across 1,843 square miles of Bayfield, Douglas and Ashland counties: 128,478 acres of Bayfield County Forest, 112,287 of Chequamegon National Forest, 97,076 of Douglas County Forest and the 45,961-acre Brule River State Forest, which exists to hold the river. No USGS gauge in the basin has a July temperature record.

Every named stream in the basin

All 98 of them, longest first. 51 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
Bois Brule River 53.4 Cold — Class I
Black River 36.7 untyped — Class III
Amnicon River 33.5 untyped — —
Balsam Creek 28.7 Cold — Class I, Class II, Class III
Iron River 28.4 Cold — Class II, Class III
Poplar River 27.1 Cold — Class II, Class III
North Fish Creek 25.8 Cold — Class I, Class II
Sioux River 18.7 Cold — Class I, Class II
East Fork Iron River 18.3 Cold — Class I
Sand River 17.6 Cold — Class II
Fish Creek 16.5 Cold — Class II
Nemadji River 16.2 untyped — —
Miller Creek 15.9 Cold — Class II, Class III
Reefer Creek 15.9 Cold — Class I
Flag River 15.1 Cold — Class I, Class II
Mud Creek 14.4 untyped — Class II
Pearson Creek 14.3 untyped — —
Little Amnicon River 14.2 Cold — Class II, Class III
Bardon Creek 13.7 untyped — —
Siskiwit River 13.7 Cold — Class I, Class II
Muskeg Creek 12.8 Cold — Class II
Smith Creek 12.5 untyped — —
Copper Creek 11.2 Cold — Class II
Nebagamon Creek 10.9 Cold — Class I, Class II
East Fork Cranberry River 10.6 Cold — Class I
Haukkala Creek 10.5 untyped — —
Cranberry River 9.9 Cold — Class I
Trask Creek 9.6 Cold — Class I, Class II, Class III
Resch Creek 9.0 untyped — —
Raspberry River 8.9 Cold — Class II
Pikes Creek 8.7 Cold — Class I
Lake Creek 8.4 untyped — —
Silver Creek 8.3 untyped — Class II
Rocky Run 8.2 Cold — Class I
Little Sioux River 7.8 Cold — Class I
Bay City Creek 7.8 untyped — —
Fisher Creek 7.7 untyped — —
Anderson Creek 7.6 Cold — Class I
Whittlesey Creek 7.5 Cold — Class I
Nelson Creek 7.4 untyped — —
Wagner Creek 7.3 untyped — —
North Pikes Creek 7.3 Cold — Class I
Fourmile Creek 7.2 Cold — Class I
Racket Creek 6.7 untyped — Class II
Hanson Creek 6.6 untyped — —
Cranberry Creek 6.1 untyped — Class I
Kaspar Creek 6.1 untyped — —
Thompson Creek 6.1 Cold — Class I
Bark River 6.0 Cold — Class I
Boyd Creek 5.8 untyped — —
Red Cliff Creek 5.7 untyped — —
Pine Creek 5.7 Cold — Class I
Bono Creek 5.6 Cold — Class I, Class II
East Fork Flag River 5.1 Cold — Class I
Little Balsam Creek 5.0 Cold — Class I
Lost Creek Number One 4.9 Cold — Class II
Rock Creek 4.8 Cold — Class I, Class III
DeChamps Creek 4.8 Cold — Class I
Empire Creek 4.7 Cold — Class I
Lost Creek Number Two 4.7 Cold — Class II
Blueberry Creek 4.5 Cold — Class I
Lost Creek Number Three 4.4 untyped — —
North Fork Whittlesey Creek 4.4 Cold — Class I, Class II
Hill Creek 4.3 Cold — Class I
Stony Brook 4.1 untyped — —
Wilson Creek 4.1 untyped — Class I
Casey Creek 4.1 Cold — Class I
Lenawee Creek 4.1 Cold — Class I
Onion River 4.1 Cold — Class I
Schacte Creek 4.0 Cold — Class I
Blaine Creek 3.6 Cold — Class I
Little Bois Brule River 3.5 Cold — Class I
Dahl Creek 3.5 Cold — Class I
West Fork Cranberry River 3.3 untyped — —
Clear Creek 3.2 untyped — —
Bishigokwe Creek 3.2 untyped — —
Minnesuing Creek 3.1 untyped — —
Hall Creek 3.1 untyped — —
Saxine Creek 3.0 Cold — Class I
Brickyard Creek 2.9 Cold — Class II
Erickson Creek 2.5 untyped — —
Hansen Creek 2.5 untyped — —
Mawikwe Creek 2.5 Cold — Class I
Middle Creek 2.0 Cold — Class I
Larson Creek 2.0 untyped — —
West Fork Bois Brule River 1.9 Cold — Class I
Sandy Run 1.9 untyped — Class I
Townsend Creek 1.9 Cold — Class I
Birch Run 1.8 Cold — Class I
Little Pine Creek 1.7 Cold — Class I
Percival Creek 1.6 Cold — Class I
Jerseth Creek 1.5 Cold — Class I
Chicago Creek 1.4 Cold — Class II
Frog Creek 1.3 untyped — —
East Fork Bois Brule River 1.2 Cold — Class I
South Fish Creek 1.0 untyped — —
Spring Angel Creek 0.7 Cold — Class I
Kolin Creek 0.0 Cold — Class I

Public land in the watershed

390,837 acres in 20 units, which is 33.1% of the 1,179,281 acres the basin covers. Private inholdings carried in the same source file are excluded, here and on the map.

Managing agency Acres Share Units
County forest 225,554 58% 2
US Forest Service 112,287 29% 1
Wisconsin DNR 52,996 14% 15
National Park Service 0 0% 1
US Fish and Wildlife Service 0 0% 1

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.