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Home › Waters › Ohio › Mad River
River · West Central Ohio · Ohio

Mad River Fishing Guides

Ohio's only true year-round trout stream, a spring-fed limestone river running from Logan County through Urbana and Springfield with wild-holdover browns.

Sunrise over a winding river cutting through open farm country
Gauge location. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Guides on the Mad River

Claimed profiles take booking requests. Unclaimed profiles are built from public records so the river is never empty; the guide can claim or remove one any time.

About the Mad River

The Mad River is an anomaly and Ohio anglers treat it accordingly. Fed by cold limestone springs in the glacial deposits of Logan and Champaign counties, it stays cold enough through an Ohio summer to hold brown trout year-round, which no other stream in the state manages. The Ohio Division of Wildlife stocks browns, and a meaningful number hold over and grow, so this is a trout river with real fish in it rather than a seasonal put-and-take.

It fishes like a small midwestern spring creek. The river is narrow and brushy in the upper reaches around West Liberty and Zanesfield, opening up through Urbana and toward Springfield, with undercut banks, gravel runs and a lot of woody cover. Sulphurs and caddis come off in early summer, midges work all winter, and streamers along the undercuts produce the largest fish. Smallmouth and rock bass mix in as the water warms downstream.

The Eagle City gauge is the middle-river number. Readings in the roughly 100 to 400 cfs range wade comfortably and keep the runs defined. The spring-fed base flow means this river does not go bone-dry in August the way freestone streams around it do, but it is still flashy after storms, when agricultural runoff colors it quickly and it clears within a day or two.

Urbana and Springfield are the base towns, with Dayton and Columbus each about forty-five minutes away. Access is a mix of public parks, bridge crossings and private land, so learn the public reaches or go with somebody who knows them.

This water needs a real photo

The photo at the top of this page is not Mad River.

It is a regional stand-in, honestly captioned but generic — we will not put a name to a river we cannot prove. Send us a photograph you took here and it replaces the stand-in, with your credit on it.

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Reader photo license v1.0 — the short version:

  • You grant Guided Floats, LLC a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to publish, resize and crop your photo on guidedfloats.com and in GuidedFloats’ own social posts and apps. You keep the copyright and can use the photo anywhere else.
  • You confirm that you took the photo yourself, that publishing it does not infringe anyone else’s rights, and that anyone recognisable in it (or a parent or guardian, if they are under 18) is happy for it to appear here.
  • Credit is printed beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, using the credit name you give us. Leave it blank and we use your name; write “Anonymous” for no name. Your email address is never published.
  • Withdrawing is one email to hello@guidedfloats.com naming the photo. It comes off the site within 7 days.
Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

Fished this water? Add a photo

Reviewed by hand before it appears. Pick the water, not the spot — we never publish exact locations.

Never published. We use it only if we need to ask about the photo.

Posting to Mad River.

JPG, PNG or WebP, up to 12 MB. We resize it and strip the location data out of the file.

The name shown under the photo. Leave blank to stay anonymous.

Reader photo license v1.0 — the short version:

  • You grant Guided Floats, LLC a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to publish, resize and crop your photo on guidedfloats.com and in GuidedFloats’ own social posts and apps. You keep the copyright and can use the photo anywhere else.
  • You confirm that you took the photo yourself, that publishing it does not infringe anyone else’s rights, and that anyone recognisable in it (or a parent or guardian, if they are under 18) is happy for it to appear here.
  • Credit is printed beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, using the credit name you give us. Leave it blank and we use your name; write “Anonymous” for no name. Your email address is never published.
  • Withdrawing is one email to hello@guidedfloats.com naming the photo. It comes off the site within 7 days.
Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

Flow alert

Tell me when the Mad River cfs

Now: 221 cfs, read 3:30 am CDT, Mon Oct 19, 2026 (USGS 03267900, Mad River at St Paris Pike at Eagle City OH).

We never use this address for anything else and never share it. See the privacy policy.

Access

Zanesfield and West Liberty: upper river access, small and brushy water.
Kings Creek confluence: cold tributary inflow and good holding water.
Urbana area bridge accesses: the most-fished middle reaches.
Eagle City and St Paris Pike: access near the gauge.
Pimtown Road and Mad River Road crossings: public bridge access downstream.
Springfield and the Buck Creek confluence: lower river, warmer water and smallmouth.
Much of the bank is private; use public crossings and stay in the stream.

Seasons

Year-round trout water, unusual in Ohio.
March through June: the best hatches and comfortable flows.
July and August: cold spring water when the rest of the state is warm; fish early.
September through February: brown trout in fall color, midges in winter, an empty river.

From the water

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Questions

What is the current flow on the Mad River?

As of Oct 19, 3:30 am, the USGS gauge Mad River at St Paris Pike at Eagle City OH reads 221 cfs, the 77th percentile for this date. Conditions update every 15 minutes.

What species can you catch on the Mad River?

Anglers target Brown Trout, Rainbow Trout, Rock Bass, Smallmouth Bass on the Mad River in Ohio.

Are there fishing guides on the Mad River?

GuidedFloats lists 1 guide and outfitters on the Mad River. Claimed profiles accept booking requests; unclaimed profiles are built from public records and link to the business.

Where can you access the Mad River?

Zanesfield and West Liberty: upper river access, small and brushy water. Kings Creek confluence: cold tributary inflow and good holding water. Urbana area bridge accesses: the most-fished middle reaches. Eagle City and St Paris Pike: access near the gauge. Pimtown Road and Mad River Road crossings: public bridge access downstream. Springfield and the Buck Creek confluence: lower river, warmer water and smallmouth. Much of the bank is private; use public crossings and stay in the stream.

When is the best time to fish the Mad River?

Year-round trout water, unusual in Ohio. March through June: the best hatches and comfortable flows. July and August: cold spring water when the rest of the state is warm; fish early. September through February: brown trout in fall color, midges in winter, an empty river.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Mad River?

Regulations change by season and section. Read the current rules on the Ohio agency site: https://ohiodnr.gov/buy-and-apply/hunting-fishing-boating/fishing-resources/fishing-regulations