Muskegon River Fishing Report – May 21, 2026 – Newaygo, Michigan

The Muskegon river is providing a buffet of options for fishing as of late and what a grab bag of fish to choose from !

From resident Brown and Rainbow trout sipping dry flies, feasting on the last of the spawning suckers eggs and chasing down baitfish, it’s a “pick your preference” kind of thing right now.

Don’t leave the Smallmouth bass out of the conversation either, we have some BIG ones in right now and they’re into spawning mode. Lastly, some Northern pike are swimming about and we had a brief encounter with a nice one pushing the mid 30″ length the other day, only to have it do one last head shake and cut the line…..will have steel leaders on hand to attach the next time we fish subsurface, in “pike’ish water”.

River levels have come down over the last week+ and are currently around average flows, with river temperatures up close to 60 degrees and should hold around there for a bit based on short and long term weather forecast.

How this transition from late spring – summer goes on the river fishing wise, has yet to be determined and we’re all just paying attention to the key variables that affect river fishing…..levels, temps & visibility. We have a tea stain to the Muskegon river now that we haven’t had in about 30 years ! With river levels going up to unprecedented levels in April, water make it into the woods in many parts of the upper watershed and the tannins from saturated leaves has gone into the main river. Also, the zebra mussels took a BIG hit with the high water, many got flushed out of the river system and now we don’t have a fraction of the water filtering mussels that we’ve seen over the last 2+ decades. They will ultimately come back to some degree, but how long that takes is unknown….this has NEVER happened before on the Muskegon river.

I’ll be out chasing fish for 20+ days in June and possibly the same for July, with both fly fishing and light spin tackle equipment. Primary focus over the next few weeks+ will be the highly sought after dry fly fishing opportunities that only last for 3-5 weeks most years on the Muskegon river.

July and August will be Smallmouth bass and based on the number of them I’ve across just in the last week or so, Northern pike could be viable targets this summer, after having very few opportunities at them the last couple years.

Before we know it, mid summer will be here and some will begin planning their fall salmon and steelhead outings….don’t wait to long if that’s you !!

For now,

Jeff