Muskegon River Fishing Report – April 5, 2026 – Newaygo, Michigan

The Muskegon river is running “big and brown” after the last day+ of heavy rains and is currently flowing at over 6,700 cfs !!! To put that in perspective, average flows for this time of early April is closer to 3,000 cfs. Although this has created a short recess from fishing/guide trips, we really needed to catch up on water levels across the state and Midwest in general. Last year at this time, we found most Michigan rivers around average flows, but approaching the onset of our late spring drought of 2025.

The spring steelhead run is in full swing on the Muskegon river and based on how overall conditions are at this time, all indicators look like we’ll have our spring run go well into May this year. The overall status of the spring steelhead run was looking pretty good before big weather fronts came in and dumped a lot of water across the state.

With both fly fishing and conventional equipment setups, we’re focusing our efforts on pre-spawn steelhead and will soon be setting up certain rigs to target resident Brown and Rainbow trout feeding down stream from spawning steelhead.

Prior to the weather of last week, we got a glimpse of the early black stone fly hatch, which can provide the first dry fly fishing opportunities of the year on the Muskegon river….I have my 5 weight fly rods and stone fly patterns on the boat !

Looking ahead to latter spring, we’ll see both resident and migratory suckers show up around shallow gravel stretches of the river, as they’re next to spawn after the steelhead. This is a great time to fish for big resident trout, who are posted up below spawning suckers, which can provide incredible sight fishing opportunities for some great trout.

Both short and long term forecasts look like we’ll stay in pretty average weather patterns over the next couple weeks.

River temperatures have finally made it above the magical 40 degree mark and we should see good, consistent fishing in the weeks ahead.

For now,

Jeff