Muskegon River Fishing Report – May 20, 2024 – Newaygo, Michigan

The Muskegon river in the Newaygo area is amidst a time of transition and we’re getting into the heart of “bug season”……and what is typically our best time for dry fly fishing from mid May – latter June.

We have an array of fishing options though, from indicator nymphing behind the spawning suckers or even sturgeon – there are a LOT of those in the river now on their spawning run – to streamer fishing on overcast days and of course…dry fly time !

Most of us are sounding like the proverbial “broken record” with regards to very odd fluctuations in weather over the past near 2 months, but it IS unprecedented from a historical perspective and many things in nature are happening well ahead of normal. What does this mean for our river fishing and summer ahead, well we really don’t know for sure.

For now though, we have some bugs, trout feeding on them and a window of time to get the floating lines out and lighter tippet we would care to fish to be honest, but it’s what we have to work with and it’s working just fine !

Smallmouth bass are in and spawning as well, so they’re in “lock jaw” mode, but once they wrap up their reproductive responsibilities, they will put the feed bag on and it could get really good, rather quickly !

Present flows running around 1,400 cfs, with normal for this time closer to 3,000 cfs and river temperatures hovering around 60.

More to follow…..go wet a line !