Muskegon River Fishing Report – January 7, 2018 – Newaygo, MI

Muskegon River Fishing Report – January 7, 2018 – Newaygo, MI

Dr. Carl with some winter CHROME !!!

The Muskegon river fishing report for January 7, 2018 in the Newaygo, MI area is a lesson on being patient while Mother Nature does her “mid winter” thing with the recent arctic weather she directed through most of the Midwest and east coast of the United States.

Nearly all rivers in the Midwest are frozen over, except a few and the Muskegon river in the town of Newaygo, which is north of Grand Rapids is one of them.   The Croton dam has flowing water coming through turbines, release gates or both, provide open water for several miles to fish resident Brown and Rainbow trout, as well as Walleye and lake Michigan steelhead that have decided to winter over in the Muskegon river.

With both fly fishing and light spin tackle equipment, we can target both trout and steelhead, but the rigs will differ slightly due to the very light tippet used for fishing trout in the winter.  Steelhead rigs are also modified a bit for winter conditions and the Walleye require a totally different rig/setup.

With some warmer weather in the forecast for next week, we may see some change in river conditions, which can be good when coupled with a slight rise in river temperature.

Present water temperature in the 34-35 degree range, a bit warmer the closer you go towards Croton dam.