Muskegon River Fishing Report – April 27, 2024 – Newaygo, Michigan

The Muskegon river in the Newaygo, Michigan area is seeing the last round of spring steelhead show up from lake Michigan on their annual spawning run….along with a LOT of Sturgeon, who also spawn in the Muskegon and other Michigan rivers this time of year.
Despite the river being incredibly low, I have never seen it this low in 26 years of full time guiding, the adult steelhead that have yet to spawn WILL make it up and find suitable grounds to complete their annual reproductive practice of spawning.

Resident Brown and Rainbow trout are keying in on certain bugs that have begun to emerge, as well as the small salmon fry from last years salmon spawn. We’re seeing signs of early arrival of certain bugs, I saw tan Caddis emerging yesterday, which are almost a MONTH early, so it will be interesting to see how things pan out with Mother Nature this spring and early summer.

Smallmouth Bass are showing up and preparing to spawn as well, we came across a pack of a dozen+ 2 days ago, most all in the 3-4# range, which wanted nothing to do with our “offerings” and this is not uncommon for them at this time….but, once they spawn and strap on the proverbial feed bag, watch out!!

Current flows around 1400 cfs, normal for this time of year around 3000 cfs and river temperatures are around the 50 degree mark.

For now,

Jeff