BirdTrout

Menominee River Watershed, Wisconsin

1,539 miles of mapped stream across 2,293 square miles of drainage in Marinette, Florence, Forest counties, in 119 named streams. Wisconsin designates 739 of those miles as trout water, on 93 streams. The 2 mainstem gauges with a July record read between 70.9 and 75.6°F in July.

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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 04030108 in the USGS Watershed Boundary Dataset. Every figure below adds up the river pages in this basin — same records, one basin at a time.

1,539 mi
of mapped stream
3,137 NHD reaches
2,293 sq mi
drainage area
1,467,463 acres
70.9–75.6°F
July water temperature at the gauges
2 mainstem gauges, mean 73.2°F
401,060 ac
public land
27.3% of the basin · 14 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 48% of this basin's stream miles (741.9 of 1,539); the rest is untyped and is drawn grey on the map above.

741.9 of the 741.9 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 48% of it.

What makes this watershed distinctive

The Menominee is the largest border basin in Wisconsin — 2,293 square miles along the Michigan line — and it carries 739 designated miles on 93 of its 119 named streams, with 801 of its 962 mapped miles classified cold. The trout water is in the tributaries rather than the border river: the Pine runs 86.0 miles at Class II and III, the Popple 50.6 and the Little Popple 35.1 both carrying all three classes, the North Branch Pike 36.2 miles as Class I, and the South Branch Pemebonwon 32.8 at Class I and II. The Menominee's own 59.0 miles are undesignated. Public ground is 401,104 acres: 197,273 of Nicolet National Forest, 165,286 of Marinette County Forest and 35,807 of Florence County Forest. No gauge in the basin holds a July temperature record.

Every named stream in the basin

All 119 of them, longest first. 68 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
Pine River 86.0 Cold — Class II, Class III
Menominee River 59.0 untyped — —
Popple River 50.6 Cold — Class I, Class II, Class III
North Branch Pike River 36.2 Cold — Class I
Little Popple River 35.1 Cold — Class I, Class II, Class III
South Branch Pemebonwon River 32.8 Cold — Class I, Class II
Wausaukee River 29.7 Cold — Class I, Class II
North Branch Pemebonwon River 29.4 Cold — Class II, Class III
South Branch Pike River 27.6 Cold — Class I, Class II, Class III
Pike River 20.7 Cold — Class II
Woods Creek 17.4 Cold — Class I
North Branch Pine River 16.9 Cold — Class II
Little South Branch Pike River 15.7 Cold — Class I, Class II, Class III
K C Creek 15.7 Cold — Class I, Class II
Spikehorn Creek 12.8 Cold — Class I, Class II
Lamon Tangue Creek 11.8 Cold — Class I
Pemebonwon River 11.4 untyped — Class III
Holmes Creek 11.4 Cold — Class I, Class II
North Branch Popple River 11.1 Cold — Class II
Coldwater Creek 11.1 Cold — Class I, Class II
South Branch Popple River 11.0 Cold — Class II
Simpson Creek 10.9 Cold — Class I, Class II
Johnson Creek 10.7 Cold — Class I, Class II
Meadowbrook Creek 10.1 Cold — Class II, Class III
Jones Creek 9.8 Cold — Class I, Class II
Lilypad Creek 9.6 Cold — Class I, Class III
Hendricks Creek 8.7 Cold — Class I
McDonald Creek 8.7 Cold — Class I, Class III
Pine Creek 8.1 Cold — Class I, Class II
Badwater Creek 8.1 untyped — —
Halls Creek 7.9 Cold — Class II
Sullivan Creek 7.9 Cold — Class I
Sidney Creek 7.8 Cold — Class I
Little Wausaukee Creek 7.8 Cold — Class I
Kimball Creek 7.6 Cold — Class II
Ten Creek 7.6 Cold — Class I, Class III
Miscauno Creek 7.5 Cold — Class I, Class II
Harter Creek 7.2 untyped — —
Chemical Creek 7.1 Cold — Class I
Harvey Creek 6.9 Cold — Class I
Morgan Creek 6.3 Cold — Class II
Macintire Creek 6.3 Cold — Class I
Rock Creek 6.1 Cold — Class I
Faithorn Creek 6.1 untyped — —
Stevens Creek 5.8 Cold — Class II
Kingstone Creek 5.7 Cold — Class II, Class III
Crossett Creek 5.4 untyped — —
Whiskey Creek 5.3 Cold — Class I
South Branch Little Popple River 5.3 Cold — Class II
South Branch Miscauno Creek 5.3 Cold — Class I
North Branch McDonald Creek 5.2 untyped — Class III
Riley Creek 5.0 Cold — Class I
Rosey Creek 5.0 Cold — Class II
Cole Creek 5.0 Cold — Class I
Lepage Creek 4.8 Cold — Class I
First Creek 4.8 untyped — —
Fay Lake Outlet 4.6 untyped — —
Avery Creek 4.6 Cold — Class II
Slough Creek 4.6 Cold — Class II
Silver Creek 4.5 Cold — Class I
Hanson Creek 4.2 Cold — Class II
Mud Creek 4.1 Cold — Class I
McAllister Creek 4.1 untyped — —
Beecher Creek 4.0 Cold — Class I
Cedarville Creek 4.0 Cold — Class I
Goodman Brook 3.9 untyped — —
Camp F Creek 3.7 Cold — Class I
Little Harvey Creek 3.7 Cold — Class I
Miscauna Creek 3.7 untyped — —
Cody Creek 3.6 Cold — Class I
Seidel Creek 3.6 untyped — Class III
Deadman Creek 3.6 Cold — Class I
Beaver Branch 3.4 untyped — —
Shinns Branch 3.3 Cold — Class I
Rat Creek 3.2 untyped — Class III
Sawyer Creek 3.2 Cold — Class II
Lund Creek 3.1 Cold — Class I
Phillips Creek 3.0 Cold — Class I
Kieper Creek 2.9 Cold — Class II
Brandts Creek 2.9 untyped — —
North Branch Miscauno Creek 2.9 Cold — Class I
Lauterman Creek 2.8 untyped — Class III
Springdale Branch 2.8 Cold — Class I
Sand Lake Branch 2.8 Cold — Class I
Haymarsh Creek 2.7 Cold — Class I
Wildcat Creek 2.7 Cold — Class I
Little Silver Creek 2.7 Cold — Class I
Camp D Creek 2.6 Cold — Class I
South Branch Harvey Creek 2.5 Cold — Class I
Spread Eagle Outlet 2.5 untyped — —
North Branch Harvey Creek 2.4 Cold — Class I
Mainline Creek 2.3 untyped — —
Fishers Creek 2.3 Cold — Class I
Spur Creek 2.3 Cold — Class II
Wakefield Creek 2.2 Cold — Class I
Carlson Creek 2.2 untyped — —
Halsey Lake Outlet 2.1 untyped — —
Haley Creek 2.0 Cold — Class I
Long Lake Outlet 2.0 untyped — —
Browning Creek 2.0 untyped — —
Seynor Creek 2.0 untyped — —
Heubler Creek 2.0 Cold — Class I
Halsey Lake Slough 1.9 untyped — —
Sevenmile Creek 1.8 Cold — Class I
Bear Creek 1.8 Cold — Class I
Howell Creek 1.7 untyped — —
Kading Creek 1.7 untyped — —
Coldwater Brook 1.7 Cold — Class I
Mullaney Creek 1.5 Cold — Class I
Chipmunk Creek 1.4 Cold — Class I
Patten Creek 1.2 Cold — Class II
Baird Creek 1.1 Cold — Class I, Class III
Lindstrom Creek 0.9 Cold — Class I
Martin Creek 0.8 Cold — Class I
Mullen Creek 0.7 untyped — —
Sturgeon River 0.5 untyped — —
Meyers Creek 0.4 Cold — Class I
Brule River 0.2 untyped — —
Pemene Creek 0.1 untyped — —

Public land in the watershed

401,060 acres in 14 units, which is 27.3% of the 1,467,463 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 201,093 50% 2
US Forest Service 197,273 49% 3
Wisconsin DNR 2,694 1% 9

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.