Muskegon River Steelhead and Trout Fishing Report – April 20, 2025 – Newaygo, Michigan

The Muskegon river spring steelhead run is in full swing right now and based on our weather patterns over the last few weeks have been, it looks like we’ll have steelhead in the river well into May. In the “good ‘ol days”, our spring run lasted longer on the Muskegon river, often going into the 3rd full week of May. I can’t really pinpoint the reason(s) for this, as the start of the spring run is about the same as 15-20+ years ago, but it has shifted a bit over the last decade+. All that said, our river levels are ok for this time of April and river temperatures are good, holding in the mid to upper 40’s.

With both fly fishing and conventional equipment setups, we’re not only catching migratory spring run steelhead, but also resident Brown and Rainbow trout. A bonus for us this year, at least up to this point, has been the dry fly fishing opportunities for resident trout. We have an early black stonefly hatch that occurs each year on the Muskegon river, but many years will find either river temperatures too cold for fish to key in on them and/or a LOT of spawning steelhead, which will draw resident trout close to spawning grounds to get easy meals of free flowing steelhead eggs and insects kicked up during the steelhead spawn. We won’t see another hatch for several weeks or when river temperatures get into the mid 50’s, which is when we’ll see the tan Caddis hatches begin.

In between the steelhead and insect hatches that kick off our early summer trout-dry fly season, both resident and migratory sucker fish will be spawning and this can be fun fishing for trout behind the spawning suckers. Longer rods and indicator nymphing setups work best to pursue these trout at that time.

Not long and we’ll be seeing the arrival of migratory Smallmouth bass on their annual trip up the river to spawn as well. This can find a good number of really solid smallmouth in the system and provide some great post spawn fishing.

The “summer” season is a mystery of sorts right now, we’ll have to wait and see what mother nature does with regards to rain and related river levels. The last 24 months have been by far the strangest weather and river conditions I’ve seen in nearly 30 years of full time guiding. From early hot spells, to mid summer cool downs, then back to scorching hot and drought conditions…who knows, it’s a roll of the dice !

Should any be looking to get out on their own for some walk in-wade fishing and would like some input of locations, riggings, etc., feel free to call or email – 616-560-3195. If you’re considering a guided trip in 2025, know that my schedule is quite full, but I do have some openings for late May – late June trout-dry fly fishing, latter June – early August Smallmouth, late September – late October salmon and end of October – mid December fall steelhead fishing. My fall salmon and steelhead schedule is already over half full, so don’t wait too long to contact me and check on open dates.

Good fishing….

Jeff