South Fork Eau Claire River
A river in Wisconsin
About South Fork Eau Claire River
The South Fork of the Eau Claire River runs through Clark County in west-central Wisconsin, in the farm and woodlot country around Willard, Reseburg and Tioga. It covers 17 miles end to end and carries 42 miles of bank against 171 acres of surface — a narrow river that takes its time.
The state manages musky here as stocking-dependent with reproduction unknown, and classifies smallmouth habitat as nursery and wadable warm water. Nursery classification is worth reading plainly: the DNR treats this as water young fish come from rather than water where grown ones stack up.
There is no public boat landing on record anywhere on it. That is not a closure, it is an absence of catalogued access — on a river this size it means bridge crossings, wading, and asking.
Check the current Wisconsin DNR regulations before keeping fish.
Written from Wisconsin DNR hydrography and fisheries data. State water ID WBIC 2137000.
How the state manages it
- musky · Reproduction UNK, stocking occurs (Cat. 0)
- smallmouth · Wadable Nursery Waters; Wadable Warm Water
Wisconsin DNR fisheries designations. These describe how the water is managed, not what is in it on any given day.
Fishing license
Wisconsin sells them online. Buy one from the state. We don’t know whether you need one — that depends on your age, where you live, the water, and what your guide’s own license covers.