A free, handpicked guide to America’s best trout and steelhead waters, with live USGS streamflow, water temperature, weather, and wading conditions in one place.
What is TroutWater.us?
TroutWater.us is a free website that shows current conditions for 447 of America’s best trout and steelhead waters across 33 states. Every water gets a card with live USGS streamflow where a gauge exists, water temperature where the station reports it, weather, wading and floating guidance, and directions, so you can check the waters you fish in one place instead of opening a dozen separate gauge pages.
The site is organized by state. Pick a state from the home page, scroll or search for a water, and the card tells you what the river is doing right now. Star the waters you care about and they collect on My Saved Waters, a single screen with live conditions for every water you’ve saved, no matter which state it’s in.
What does each water card show?
- Discharge
- The current flow in cubic feet per second (cfs) from the USGS gauge, with the change over the last few hours so you can see whether the river is rising, falling, or holding.
- Water temperature
- Shown when the station reports it. Many gauges measure flow only, so a card that shows temperature as “not measured” isn’t broken; that station simply doesn’t record temperature.
- Wadeable and floatable
- Each water carries a flow range for comfortable wading and a range for floating. The status pill compares the current flow to those ranges. Treat them as a starting point, not a guarantee: a number that’s easy wading on one reach can be dangerous on another.
- Rest the fish
- A warm-water flag. When the station reports water at or above about 68°F, the card says so, because trout are stressed at those temperatures and catch-and-release mortality climbs. Fish early, fish somewhere cooler, or give the river a day.
- Designations and tiers
- Gold chips mark state-designated waters such as Colorado Gold Medal, Montana and Michigan Blue Ribbon, and Pennsylvania Keystone Select. Tier tags reflect our own editorial read of the fishery.
- Weather, directions, and maps
- Every card links to a weather forecast and driving directions for the water and, where available, the water on TroutRoutes.
- As of
- The time of the most recent reading the gauge sent. If a station has stopped reporting, the card says “Station dark” and shows the last date it reported rather than pretending the number is current.
Where does the data come from?
Streamflow, water temperature, and gauge height come directly from the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Water Information System (NWIS), the federal network of stream gauges that has measured American rivers for more than a century. USGS stations typically report every 15 minutes to an hour, and TroutWater requests the latest reading each time you load a page. Weather forecasts come from weather.com.
Underlying USGS data is public-domain federal information. TroutWater is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or operated by the USGS, weather.com, or any government agency. What we add is the curation, the fishing context, and the presentation.
Conditions change fast, and a gauge can sit miles from the water you plan to fish. Use TroutWater to plan, then use your own judgment at the river. Wading and floating ranges are general guidance, not a safety rating. Always check current fishing regulations and any emergency closures with the state agency before you go.
How are the waters chosen?
By hand. TroutWater.us doesn’t simply list every gauge in the USGS network. Each water was selected because it’s a fishery anglers know or travel for: tailwaters, freestones, spring creeks, limestone streams, Great Lakes and West Coast steelhead water, and the state-designated waters above. Some waters are included even when no USGS gauge sits on them, because a good water is still worth knowing about, and we’d rather show you the water with the gauge data we have than leave it out. Where a gauge has gone dark, we look for a nearby station that tells the same story and label it plainly as a proxy.
The list is still growing. If a water you fish is missing, or a wading range looks wrong for the reach you know, tell us on Instagram at @troutwater.us.
What are My Saved Waters?
Tap the star on any card to save that water. My Saved Waters then shows live conditions for everything you’ve starred, across states, on one screen. It’s the page to check with your morning coffee before you decide where to go. Saved waters are stored in your own browser, so there’s no account to create and nothing to sign in to.
Is TroutWater.us free?
Yes. There’s no paywall, no subscription, and no account. TroutWater is supported by voluntary donations from anglers who find it useful, and by nothing else. If it saves you a wasted drive, a contribution helps keep the servers running and the water list growing.
Who builds TroutWater.us?
TroutWater is built and maintained by Eagle Fly Company, a small Pennsylvania company run by a fly angler who got tired of checking fifteen or more different USGS pages and other river resources before planning a trip. The site started as a Pennsylvania-only project and grew state by state as anglers asked for their home water. It is written angler to angler: plain language, fishery-first naming, and no hype about conditions.
Site design, code, and original written content are © Eagle Fly Company, all rights reserved. Underlying USGS streamflow data remains public-domain federal information.