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Chippewa River Fishing Report

Updated Fri, Oct 23, 2026 from live gauge and weather data

The lower Chippewa: five hydropower flowages, then 61 free-flowing miles from Eau Claire to the Mississippi that WDNR says hold 70% of the state's fish species.

3/5
Fair. Fish the windows.A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.
Flow
1,430 cfs
Air / High
74 / 75 F
Wind
S 13 mph

Sources: USGS gauge 05365500, Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.

Satellite view
Friday
23
October 2026

Today's Fishing Report

Generated this morning from live readings: gauge, weather model, sun and moon. A fresh report is published here every morning.

3/5Fair. Fish the windows.A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.

Chippewa River rewards those who follow the bait as the water cools. The river is running 1,430 cfs, dropping and clearing. Today brings cloud cover, wind S around 13 mph, steady pressure near 1020 hPa and a high of 75. Water sits around 62 F for the season (estimated). With the waxing gibbous, the solunar majors run 9:41 AM-11:41 AM and 10:11 PM-12:11 AM: the windows to build the day around.

The plan, species by species

MuskellungeExcellent

This band covers the spring spawn, which in Wisconsin runs at 49-60°F; spawning muskies eat little and rarely chase lures, Wisconsin DNR says. After the spawn, and again as fall water cools, work large lures along weed edges and structure.

Smallmouth bassGood

Spring pre-spawn and fall: Iowa DNR notes the larger bass come up to shallow structure, where a shallow-running minnow bait or a spinnerbait just under the surface works.

WalleyeGood

Spring: post-spawn fish scatter and can be slow for a couple of weeks. Fall: one of the best windows, with minnows on jigs and three-way rigs as the water cools toward ice-up.

Catfish (blue, channel)Good

In spring after ice-out, Iowa finds channel cats feeding on winter-killed shad on the shallow, warmer mudflats at the upper ends of reservoirs; cut bait on the bottom works there.

Northern pikeGood

The best band for pike: right after ice-out they move into flooded vegetated shallows to spawn, and they feed actively again as the water cools in fall.

CrappieFair

Pre-spawn fish move toward shallow coves, and Iowa DNR points to wading as an effective way to reach them in spring; minnows or small jigs under a float.

Tomorrow: Similar at 74 F. The solunar majors shift about 50 minutes later.Next report: Sat, Oct 24, 6:30 AMHow this report is made →

Before you go

Wisconsin requires a fishing licence from age 16, from $20.00 for residents. What a Wisconsin licence costs and where to buy it →

Chasing smallmouth bass here? Check the size and bag limits with WI DNR before you keep anything. The season dates for Wisconsin, read off the agency, are on the Wisconsin seasons page.

Water and weather

Live readings from Chippewa River at Chippewa Falls.

Flow, last 30 days

USGS gauge 05365500.

1,2291,5251,8211,430 cfs09/2310/0310/1310/23

Today’s flow against 134 years of October 23

At 1,430 cfs, the flow at USGS gauge 05365500 (Chippewa River at Chippewa Falls) is at the 17th percentile for the date: below normal. In half of the 134 years of approved record the daily mean on October 23 was below 3,005 cfs; the highest was 21,700 cfs and the lowest 100 cfs.

p10 1,010median 3,005p90 9,325

Percentiles of the daily mean flow for this date, from the USGS Water Data Statistics API for gauge 05365500; today’s reading is the latest instantaneous value. Classes follow the ones the USGS used on its WaterWatch maps (retired at the end of 2025): below 10th, much below normal; 10th–24th, below; 25th–75th, normal; 76th–90th, above; over 90th, much above.

Right now

Latest readings

Air temp74 F
High / Low75 / 51 F
WindS 13-19 mph
Pressure1020.3 hPa, steady
Sky / Rain80% cloud, 8%
Sunrise / Sunset07:31 / 18:07
MoonWaxing Gibbous, 91%
Water temp (seasonal)~62 F est.

Bite planner

Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today. Tap a bar to see why.

5 AM8 AM11 AM2 PM5 PM8 PMsunrisesunsetPRIMEPRIME

Which day to fish Chippewa River this week

The best day on Chippewa River this week looks like Saturday Oct 24, at 4 out of 5, against 3 today.

Best day this week: Saturday, Oct 24 — good at 4/5, falling pressure, usually the best window of a week.

Today, Oct 23 — Fair

A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.

Solunar majors
9:41 AM-11:41 AM and 10:11 PM-12:11 AM
Minor period
4:04 AM-5:04 AM
Sun
07:31 to 18:07
Moon
Waxing Gibbous, 91% lit
Sky and wind
Showers, 13 mph
Rain chance
8%

Forecast-based scores, less reliable further out: how the score is built.

Species guide

The species that matter on Chippewa River: seasons, structure and how to fish each one. Today's ratings live in the report above.

Smallmouth bass illustration

Smallmouth bass

Best: spring and fall, when bigger fish come shallow

A bronze-brown black bass of clear, cool streams and rocky lakes, with dark vertical bars instead of a side stripe. Michigan DNR says its southeastern coast, from Port Huron to Lake Erie, is known nationally for both the size and the number of its smallmouth. Spring pre-spawn and fall: Iowa DNR notes the larger bass come up to shallow structure, where a shallow-running minnow bait or a spinnerbait just under the surface works.

Walleye illustration

Walleye

Best: spring and late fall, around dawn, dusk and night

A cool-water perch of large lakes, reservoirs and rivers whose reflective eyes are built for low light, so it feeds most at night and in murky water. The Missouri Department of Conservation ranks it among the continent's most important freshwater game fish. Spring: post-spawn fish scatter and can be slow for a couple of weeks. Fall: one of the best windows, with minnows on jigs and three-way rigs as the water cools toward ice-up.

Muskellunge illustration

Muskellunge

Fished from late spring into late fall where seasons allow

Muskellunge are solitary, fish-eating ambush predators of the pike family, holding in weed beds and other cover in lakes and rivers of the Great Lakes, upper Mississippi and Ohio basins. This band covers the spring spawn, which in Wisconsin runs at 49-60°F; spawning muskies eat little and rarely chase lures, Wisconsin DNR says. After the spawn, and again as fall water cools, work large lures along weed edges and structure.

Catfish (blue, channel) illustration

Catfish (blue, channel)

Year-round, best at dusk and after dark

Three big catfish share most of the country's rivers and reservoirs: the channel catfish, the most widespread; the blue catfish, the largest; and the flathead, which hunts live fish. All feed mostly on or near the bottom. In spring after ice-out, Iowa finds channel cats feeding on winter-killed shad on the shallow, warmer mudflats at the upper ends of reservoirs; cut bait on the bottom works there.

Crappie illustration

Crappie

Best: the spring spawn; summer around docks, brush and the thermocline

Two slab-sided panfish, the white crappie and the black crappie, that gather around submerged timber, brush piles, docks and bridge pilings in lakes, reservoirs and slow river backwaters. Texas Parks and Wildlife counts crappie as the state's most popular panfish. Pre-spawn fish move toward shallow coves, and Iowa DNR points to wading as an effective way to reach them in spring; minnows or small jigs under a float.

Northern pike illustration

Northern pike

Best: cool water, from ice-out through spring, in fall and under the ice

A long, duck-billed predator of weedy lakes, slow rivers and backwaters that ambushes fish from vegetation. Wisconsin DNR points out that, unlike most of the state's common game fish, pike do their best feeding in cool water. The best band for pike: right after ice-out they move into flooded vegetated shallows to spawn, and they feed actively again as the water cools in fall.

When to come: the Chippewa River calendar

Activity by species and month, and how the water warms through the year. Tap any cell.

Species activity by month

1 = slow, 5 = peak. Current month highlighted.

J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Smallmouth bass
Walleye
Muskellunge
Catfish (blue, channel)
Crappie
Northern pike
SlowPeak

Water temperature through the year

Typical surface temperature for this water type; today is around 62 F (estimated, not a reading).

4050607080JanMarMayJulSepNovOct, ~62 F now

Angler reports

Real reports from real anglers, reviewed before publishing. The water log below tracks each day automatically.

No angler reports yet this weekBe the first: your report helps every angler who checks Chippewa River today, and we feature the best catch of the week.

Water log, last days

Auto-logged from live data
Thu, Oct 22

3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Muskellunge led the card at excellent. High of 75 F, wind to 8 mph.

Wed, Oct 21

4/5 Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up. Smallmouth bass led the card at excellent. High of 73 F, wind to 4 mph.

Tue, Oct 20

4/5 Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up. Smallmouth bass led the card at excellent. High of 69 F, wind to 11 mph.

Where roughly, what depth, what bait. Skip anything you want to keep secret.
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Before you go

License

Wisconsin requires a valid fishing license for adults. Buy online from the state agency; one-day options exist for visitors.

Regulations

Wisconsin license (2026–2027 Wisconsin hook and line regulations). Upstream of the Dells Pond Dam each flowage is a separate water: walleye 13 in. minimum, 16–24 in. must be released, only one over 24 in.; muskellunge 50 in. on Lake Wissota. Below the Dells Pond Dam: open all year for most species, walleye 15 in. minimum. Lake sturgeon: hook-and-line harvest Sept 5–30, 2026, 1 per season, 60 in., tag and registration; catch-and-release only Jun 6, 2026–Mar 7, 2027 outside that window.

Access

No public landings were verified on a WDNR page. USGS gauge 05365500, Chippewa River at Chippewa Falls, reports flow and stage.

About this water

The Chippewa River in west-central Wisconsin, flowing through Chippewa, Eau Claire, Dunn, Pepin and Buffalo counties to the Mississippi; the map point is at Chippewa Falls.

Fishing Chippewa River: the full guide

Flowages and free-flowing river

WDNR calls the Chippewa one of the largest rivers in Wisconsin. Below the Holcombe dam it runs 103 miles to the Mississippi, through five hydropower flowages owned by Northern States Power: Cornell Flowage (836 acres), Old Abe Lake (996 acres), Lake Wissota (about 6,212 acres), the Chippewa Falls Flowage (282 acres) and Dells Pond (1,183 acres). About 69 miles flow free, 61 of them below the Dells Dam at Eau Claire, which WDNR describes as some of the last remaining unimpounded large riverine habitat in the Upper Midwest. Below Eau Claire the river braids near Caryville and again near its mouth, below Durand.

Fish of the river

WDNR lists the major sport fish as walleye, muskellunge, northern pike, smallmouth bass, channel catfish, flathead catfish, lake sturgeon, bluegill and black crappie. It says the lower river below the Dells Dam harbors 70 percent of the state's fish species and is one of the most diverse fisheries in the Upper Midwest. WDNR also lists the river at Eau Claire as impaired by contaminated sediments and PCBs in fish tissue, so check Wisconsin's fish consumption advice.

Lake sturgeon

The 2026 hook-and-line lake sturgeon season on the Chippewa ran from September 5 to September 30: one fish of at least 60 inches per angler per season, with a hook-and-line sturgeon tag and registration at a designated station. WDNR's season forecast said there are plenty of juvenile sturgeon near Eau Claire, all supported by natural reproduction, and legal-size fish in all six lower Chippewa impoundments. Outside that season the river is catch-and-release only for sturgeon, and a tag is not needed to release a fish.

Common questions

Can I keep a walleye from the Chippewa below Eau Claire?

Yes, if it is at least 15 inches: below the Dells Pond Dam the river is open all year for most species with a 15-inch walleye minimum. Upstream, the flowages use a 13-inch minimum with a protected 16–24 inch slot.

When can I keep a lake sturgeon?

Only during the hook-and-line season (September 5–30 in 2026), one fish of at least 60 inches, with a sturgeon tag and registration. The rest of the year sturgeon on the Chippewa are catch-and-release.

Is the river dammed below Eau Claire?

No. WDNR says the 61 miles from the Dells Dam to the Mississippi are free-flowing.

Is fishing good at Chippewa River right now?

Check the daily report at the top of this page: it is regenerated every morning from live data. Today's read: Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.

Nearby waters

Lake Wissota4 miLake Pepin52 miKinnickinnic River60 miChippewa Flowage67 miLac Courte Oreilles67 miWhitewater River68 mi

Where this page's numbers come from

River and reservoir readings
USGS 05365500 — Chippewa River at Chippewa Falls
Read from the USGS Water Data API (api.waterdata.usgs.gov). Latest value timestamped 2026-10-23 at 19:00 UTC.
Weather and pressure
Open-Meteo forecast model
Queried at 44.9300, -91.4000 in this water's own timezone. A model, not an observation.
Moon and solunar windows
Calculated on this site
Astronomical calculation from these coordinates and the date, not a third-party feed. How much weight it deserves.
Pages checked
The facts in the written guide were checked against these pages, from the agencies and operators that manage the water, on October 6, 2026. Anything we could not verify was taken out.
The written guide on this page
Pablo Ruiz Quintero
How this page was made. The daily report is computed by our scoring engine from live readings; nobody types it. The written text was drafted with AI assistance from the official pages listed above, and its facts were checked against those pages by automated verification on October 6, 2026; anything that could not be verified was taken out. Pablo Ruiz Quintero sets every guideline, the data-verification system and the minimum standards a page must meet to be published, reviews page structure and approves what goes live; the responsibility is his, and the AI carries out the work. We work this way because it is how one person can keep every page current with named sources. Errors are published in the verification log; the full policy is in the editorial policy.

Readings refresh on a 30-minute window. The full method, with every figure and its source, is on how our reports are made. Something wrong here? Tell us and it goes in the log with the date.