Namekagon River

About Namekagon River

The Namekagon runs about fifty miles as the crow flies and a great deal further as the river actually goes, from the lake of the same name near Cable down through Trego and Springbrook to the St. Croix. The survey outline breaks it into five separate stretches and puts 207 miles of bank on it. It is one of the eight original rivers named under the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act in 1968, and it is federal ground for most of its length as part of the St. Croix National Scenic Riverway.

That federal ownership is visible in the access. Of the twelve public landings on record, ten belong to the National Park Service and most are gravel or unimproved — Cable Wayside, Hwy M, Larsen Bridge, Squaw Bend. Two exceptions are worth knowing: the County K access near Trego is the one marked accessible, and Trego Township Park is the only concrete plank ramp on the river. This is not a river that rewards a big boat.

The state's classifications change as the river does. Twenty-three miles carry a Class II trout designation and an Outstanding Resource Water listing. Below that the river is managed for smallmouth across five different habitat classes, for musky with natural reproduction plus stocking, for walleye, and for lake sturgeon that reproduce on their own. Local accounts describe the same shift on the water: brown and brook trout above Hayward, smallmouth taking over below it, with walleye and pike thickening the further down it goes.

Seasons and size limits vary by reach on a river classified this many different ways. Check the current Wisconsin DNR regulations for the stretch being fished.

Written from Wisconsin DNR hydrography and fisheries data, and from Fishing – Namekagon River, Namekagon River Fishery Area — Wisconsin DNR, Namekagon River — Wisconsin Trail Guide.