Muskegon River Steelhead and Trout Fishing Report – March 24, 2025 – Newaygo, Michigan

The Muskegon river in the Newaygo, Michigan area is REALLY trying to transition from winter to spring “mode”, but ‘Ol Man Winter just won’t let go !! We had some really nice weather earlier in March, as shown in the picture above, but frigid conditions have returned and it finds our spring steelhead run in progress, but not yet kicked into high gear.

All this said, we did get some much needed rain and rise in river levels a couple weeks ago, but levels have since dropped and we could use another drink soon ! I did see my first sign of fresh run steelhead in recent days, with some brighter, chrome fish showing up.

With both fly fishing and conventional equipment, we’re pursuing not only the migratory spring steelhead, but also resident Brown and Rainbow trout. The trout will be moving into position for easy meals of steelhead eggs and nymphs/larva once spawning activity picks up. We did have some early black stone fly hatches during nicer days over the last couple weeks, but with river temperatures hovering in the upper 30’s, not likely we’ll see many trout keying in on bugs until river temps come up.

It won’t be long and we’ll be stowing the big game rods and pulling out lighter trout fly rods for the much anticipated dry fly fishing ! This has been starting in latter May the last handful of years, which is earlier than it “used to be”…but a LOT of things we’re seeing on our rivers across the country, are different than they used to be. Trout fishing typically holds through early July, but this is really dictated by Mother Nature and rising river temperatures of mid summer. Once we get into the mid 60’s, we’ll see insect hatches really taper off and then Smallmouth bass take center stage for July and August.

Should anyone be looking to get out for some walk in-wade fishing and would like a report or suggestion on rivers, rigging or other specifics on flies or equipment, feel free to call or email me….my information is on the contact page of this site.

Have a good end of March, more follow….

Jeff