Rivers and Streams of the Upper Chippewa Basin

Below are narrative descriptions for waters for which we have a description on file. Not all waters in the basin are listed below.

Lower Jump River

Little Jump River, 1996

The Jump River is one of the best smallmouth bass streams in Northwestern Wisconsin and is very productive for warm water game fish in general. It is stocked with muskellunge and managed for game fish. WDNR has streambank easements on the Jump River. The village of Sheldon wastewater treatment plant is the only point source discharge to the Jump. The river has been proposed as an Exceptional Resource Water under the state's antidegradation policy on the stretch from the village of Jump River to the Holcombe Flowage. Two dragonflies that are listed as Wisconsin Endangered Species (Ophlogomphus anomalus and 0. howei) are found in limited numbers along the lower Jump River. The purple pimpleback (Cycloniais tuberculata), a rare mussel. area also found in the river (Balding, 1994). Improved water quality for this segment of the Rtver could add several miles of habitat for these endangered resources. We have no recent water resources information for the Jump River. Fisheries information indicates no obvious habitat or water quality degradation. A fish kill involving several species was noted in 1975, but the cause was not determined. Because of the resource value of the Jump Rtver, and potential threats from land use in the watershed, long-term monitoring should be conducted.