Muskegon River Fishing Report – Newaygo, MI – April 21, 2016

Muskegon River Fishing Report – Newaygo, MI – April 21, 2016

Jack, with guest Bob, holds a very acrobatic Muskegon river steelhead from today.

The Muskegon river near Newaygo, MI is running near average flows for this time of April, after having dropped consistently over the last few days. 

We are into our spring steelhead run and catching not only them, but also resident Brown and Rainbow trout.  With both fly fishing and light spin tackle setups, we’re finding fish each day and despite the lack of big pushes of new fish in from lake Michigan, have had some pretty good days over the last week.

Bob, from west Michigan, with a great male steelhead from the Muskegon river that ran us all over the place before we got it to the net !

The resident Brown and Rainbow trout are looking plump, healthy and happy….we should be in for some GOOD trout fishing come late May and through the month of June.  From what I’ve seen over the last few weeks of catching trout while fishing for steelhead, we could be in for some of the best dry fly fishing we’ve had in several years.

More steelhead are sure to come as we wrap up April and get into May, how many is still the unknown.  With great lakes big game fish numbers down in general, we’re assessing the health and population of each fishery, both salmon and steelhead, on a season to season basis.  Much of this rests on the health of the Alewife population and with us seeing a more mild winter this year compared to the last 2, we have positive signs moving forward with regards to the baitfish that support much of these fisheries.

Although water levels have dropped recently, we’re still holding a bit of a tea stain to the water and present water temperature is in the 48-49 degree range.