Muskegon River Fishing Report – Newaygo, MI – July 7, 2016

Muskegon River Fishing Report – Newaygo, MI – July 7, 2016

Adam, from CO, with a REALLY NICE Smallmouth bass taken on a streamer today.

The Muskegon river fishing report for the Newaygo, MI area is one filled with all kinds of options right now for both the fly fishing enthusiast and conventional angler. 

With early morning hatches of Trico’s coming off at daybreak and going until around 8-8:30, we’re casting #18-20 Trico spinners on fly rods to rising trout.  Although many of the resident Brown and Rainbow trout are sipping dry flies off the surface are in the 7-9″ range, there are other larger fish feeding as well.   These can be quite selective and have been feeding in spurts, with several bugs taken in succession, then they go “down” for a while before repeating this pattern.  Trout are also chasing some streamers around and we’re fishing a combination of baitfish, crayfish and a few of my own, unique creations to get them to bite.

Smallmouth bass fishing has been quite good and we saw some dandies today !  With both topwater poppers/waking flies, along with subsurface offerings similar to those we’re casting to trout……baitfish, crayfish and some crazy “Jeff” flies, Smallmouth bass have been active.

Both the fly fisher and conventional tackle angler can get the same or very similar flies/lures, through the runs, pools and backwaters to get smally’s to come out and play.

For fly fishing setups, I have 5 weight rods rigged for any dry fly opportunities we come across for casting to trout, along with 7 weight rods and reels spooled with 250 grain sinking lines for fishing streamers. 

Indicator nymphing is always a solid option as well come this time of summer when hatches start to taper off.

A conventional tackle setup could include a 6-7′, light action rod, with 5-8 ball bearing spinning reel, spooled with either lighter braided line (15# test), that I “tip” with a 4-5′ piece of 6-8# fluorocarbon.  Another option would be to just run straight 6-8# test line off the reel and be sure to give it a GOOD hook set.

With water temperatures hanging around 67 right now, we’ll still have some viable trout fishing in the days ahead and presuming we don’t get a big heat wave over the next week-10 days,  we may still have some decent trout fishing through July.

As water temperatures rise through July and early August, we’ll see the Smallmouth bass fishing only get better.

Present water temperature in the 67-68 degree range.