Muskegon River Fishing Report – May 10, 2018 – Newaygo, Michigan

Bill, from NC, holds a great Muskegon river steelhead caught while fishing with long time friend Brad.

The Muskegon river fishing report for May 10, 2018 in the Newaygo, Michigan area is focused on both resident Brown and Rainbow trout fishing, as well as the last leg of our spring Steelhead run.

As river water temperatures continue to come up, insect activity will pick up and sooner than later, provide our first legitimate dry fly fishing opportunities of the new year.  With a very odd “spring” season up to the point in general, with erratic water levels and river temps, we’ve seen the emergence schedule of certain insects get thrown way off, but it should all come together here shortly as we’re back on track to see the last of our Stone flies, Caddis, Sulphurs and eventually Gray Drakes complete their “circle of life” and become a food source for trout to “look up” for.   

Brad with a very colorful male steelhead caught on the same outing with Bill.

Most all trout fishing is done with fly fishing equipment, whether it’s stripping streamers with 6-7 weight rods and sink tip lines, to indicator nymphing with 5-6 weight rods or casting dry flies with those same 5-6 weight rods, we will be targeting resident trout for the next 2 months or so.  Shortly after, I will be switching over to fishing for Smallmouth bass, Northern pike and even the occasional Walleye on not only the Muskegon river, but other west Michigan watersheds that may be fishing good at that time.  This can include other stretches of the Muskegon river, both up and down stream from Croton dam/Newaygo area, to the Grand river in/around the Grand Rapids area and even possibly the Kalamazoo river around the Saugatuck area, if that’s fishing good come mid summer.

Not so soon though……….as we still have Steelhead in the river to catch !  With both fly fishing and light spin tackle equipment, we’ll fish Steelhead until the last of the true run has made it into the river, then switch over to focus on trout.  It has been a good run in general, with a couple 2-3 day stretches over the past month+ where we were in between new Steelhead coming in from lake Michigan and had to do a little hunting for them, but that’s why there called “migratory” !

With the present and forecasted rains, we may see water levels come up once more on the Muskegon river, but that’s fine by me……I would prefer it to be a bit high and a touch off color, than low and gin clear.   Overall, the river looks healthy and if you’re out wade fishing in the near future, don’t be surprised if you come across a Sturgeon or two, we have some of those in on their annual spawning run and have seen a couple different ones in recent days in the 5-6 foot range.

Present water levels around 3,300 cfs, with normal flows for this time of May around 3,000 and water temperature hovering around the 53 degree mark.