One rule from the Lake Namekagon dam to the County E bridge
The regulation is the simplest way to understand this river, because the state drew it around the trout. In the 2026-2027 trout guide the Namekagon is listed as a Red water in Bayfield County and again in Sawyer and Washburn counties, from the County E bridge in Washburn County upstream to the Lake Namekagon Dam: a daily bag of 1 trout over 14 inches, and only artificial lures may be used. That reach runs through Cable and Hayward, past the old dam sites at Pacwawong and Phipps and over the working dam at Hayward, all of it inside the St. Croix National Scenic Riverway. Below County E, toward Trego and the St. Croix, the county base rule of 5 trout of any length takes over, but by then the DNR says trout are few and smallmouth have taken the river.
The whole river is in Wisconsin, so a Wisconsin license and inland trout stamp is what you need. Bayfield, Sawyer and Washburn all appear in the early-season list, which means the river above County E opens January 3, 2026 to artificials with zero harvest through April 3, and the harvest season runs April 4 through October 15.
Why the trout stop at Hayward
The National Park Service, which manages the Riverway, says brown and brook trout live in the colder water from Larson Road Landing north, and that the Namekagon upstream of Hayward has national recognition for its naturally reproducing brown and brook trout. The DNR's fishery-area page says the same thing from the other direction: the section from Hayward downriver to the St. Croix is a transition zone where trout become fewer, smallmouth bass begin to dominate, and walleye and northern pike increase, with muskellunge, lake sturgeon and catfish sought as well. FlyFishFinder puts the coldest water and most brook trout above Cable, with browns dominating below. Nobody publishes trout-per-mile numbers for the river, so treat any you see elsewhere as guesses.
The Park Service's own description of the river is honest about the wading: generally shallow with a rocky bottom until near the St. Croix, tight meandering turns and braided stretches around small islands, rapids that rarely reach Class II, and water so thin near the head that paddling is hard except early in the season. The DNR adds that it is not suitable for boats in the upper reaches, which is why most of the trout fishing here is done on foot or from a canoe on the deeper stretches.
Landings, campsites and the tubing stretch
Access is a Park Service business. Larson Road Landing is the downstream end of the trout water; the Park Service describes numerous campsites along the entire river and section maps 1 through 4 for the Namekagon on its maps page. The DNR's Namekagon River Fishery Area east of Springbrook, two parcels totaling 152.5 acres, has an unimproved landing on the western parcel reached from US 63 by Larson Road, and the second parcel is off County E. The float filmed for FlyFishingWithJeff put in at Stinnett Landing and ran 5.5 miles to North Springbrook Landing, which is smallmouth water, not trout water.
Two things will shape your day. The Park Service says the working dams at Hayward and Trego must be portaged, while the old dam sites at Pacwawong and Phipps can be run in higher water, and the flowages behind them mean slower water and boat traffic. And tubing is popular between Trout Run Landing and Hayward and from Earl Park Landing to Trego, so on a July weekend the reach through Hayward belongs to the tubes after mid-morning. FlyFishFinder's advice to fish early before the canoe traffic starts is the local consensus. Hayward Fly Fishing Company in Hayward is the shop, and it guides the Namekagon along with the Chippewa and Flambeau.
Hex in the flat water, caddis every evening
FlyFishFinder's Namekagon page calls caddis the most dependable hatch through summer, with evening emergences from May into August that a size 14 Elk Hair covers, and puts Hendricksons in May on cool overcast afternoons. The Hex is the event: late June and early July, peaking in the first days of July in the slower pools and weedy backwaters after dark. Autumn caddis with orange bodies show in September and October on mild afternoons, and August is hopper season along the grassy banks of the wider water.
WiFlyFisher's northern Wisconsin chart, which names the Namekagon, fills in the rest with olives from the end of March into June and back in September, Sulphurs at the turn of May into June, the March Brown and Gray Fox clinger through June, Brown Drakes in June, Isonychia from the end of June to the end of August, a July Trico and an August White Fly. Bill Sherer's chart from We Tie It in Boulder Junction, linked from the same page, is the other regional reference.
Smallmouth, sturgeon and the crayfish rule below Hayward
From the Hayward Dam down to the St. Croix the 2026-2027 rules are a different pamphlet. Lake sturgeon are catch-and-release only from June 6, 2026 through March 7, 2027 on that reach, and the Park Service bans live crayfish as bait anywhere on the Riverway. Sawyer and Washburn counties are in the northern bass zone, where smallmouth may be kept, 5 in combination with largemouth at 14 inches, only from June 20, 2026 through March 7, 2027, and it is catch and release the rest of the year. Muskellunge open statewide May 2. The Park Service also reminds you that when you land a boat you are inspected by the state where you land, which matters only once you reach the St. Croix border reach.
The Namekagon River Visitor Center at 715-496-5539 is the Park Service's number for river conditions, and the Riverway's current-conditions page lists normal and high levels by gauge.
Leonards: a small gauge in the middle of the trout water
USGS 05331833 sits at Leonards in Bayfield County, between Cable and the Sawyer County line, so it reads the upper trout water rather than the bigger river at Hayward or Trego. It has only reported since 1996 and the river it measures is small: monthly means of about 101 cfs in January, 124 in March, 218 in April, 208 in May, 158 in June, 131 in July, 109 in August, 111 in September and 128 in October. No shop or guide publishes a wading number for this gauge, so the 80 to 200 cfs band on this page comes from that record, roughly the June-through-October envelope. Above 200 the river is in its April and May snowmelt mode and the rapids are pushy; below 80 is a dry summer with the Park Service's warning about thin water at the head in full effect.