Muskegon River Fishing Report – April 29, 2024 – Newaygo, Michigan

As we close out the month of April, the Muskegon river will continue to see a few more steelhead come in from lake Michigan on their annual spawning run.

With river levels FINALLY coming up a little due to rains the last couple days, levels are much better than they were last week, but still below our “average” flows for the end of April.

It’s truly a time of transition on the Muskegon river, with the first of our Caddis fly hatches sure to bring resident Brown and Rainbow trout to the surface for the beginning of our best dry fly fishing of the year, which typically goes into mid-late June.

Smallmouth bass are starting to show up and are in “pre-spawn” mode, staging in deeper pools and runs until their biological clock kicks in and they find bedding areas in the slower moving water of the river.

We’re currently seeing trout key in on and crash the surface chasing salmon fry, which should continue for a little longer, before the small salmon grow and find more cover to hide in.

The pending hatches will be great for the fly fisher, but there is still ample opportunity for fishing the remaining steelhead and trout chasing salmon fry, to be caught with either fly fishing or conventional equipment.

The current weather and rains that are coming with it, will provide relief from the near drought conditions we’ve had to work with in the previous weeks and with any hope, continue to bring river levels up in the days ahead.