The finescale dace occupies the regions ranging across the southern and northwest parts of Canada to areas of Minnesota, and more southward to the areas that lie near the Great Lakes Basin. The populations have been shown to inhabit areas in Minnesota including Brule Lake, as well as those bodies of water occupying the Lake Superior drainage areas of St. Louis and Cook counties. This species has also been found to live in the Great Lakes drainage stream regions of Wisconsin (although rarely seen in southern parts of Wisconsin). Although more northernly distributed, they have been seen to exist as Glacial relict populations in the Sand Hills of Nebraska, the Black Hills of South Dakota, Colorado, and parts of Wyoming.