Muskegon River Fishing Report – Newaygo, MI – March 14, 2016

Muskegon River Fishing Report – Newaygo, MI – March 14, 2016

Tom, from Chicago, with a very scrappy male steelhead that fought twice its size !!!

The Muskegon river near Newaygo, MI is running above average flows at this time due to the warm weather and rains over the last handful of days, which melted all of the snow from our last storm that came through Michigan a week+ ago.

We are on the front end of our annual spring steelhead season right now and will be through April and into May.  With both fly fishing and light spin tackle equipment, we are catching pre-spawn fish that are “staging” in pools and runs close to spawning grounds. 

Conventional tackle rigs are either long float rods (11+’) for fishing floats/bobbers, or slightly shorter bottom bounce rods (9-10′) for fishing deeper runs.  Both rigged with #12-14 main line and #8-10 tippet.

Fly fishing options include indicator nymphing setups for fishing medium depth – deep runs with 10+’ rods in 7 or 8 weight, 1 or 2 handed rods for swinging streamers or casting-retrieving them and 9-10′ rods for “chuck-n-duck” fishing deeper runs with suitable bottom structure for bottom bouncing.  With water temperatures still chilly – 36 degrees over the weekend – fish are holding off the main current, in runs that provide some cover in the form of actual structure – logs/big boulders – or medium size boulder runs.

With water temperatures finally getting above 35 for the first time in quite a while, we’re surely on the upward swing and look to see a good pack of fresh steelhead make it in from lake Michigan in the days ahead.

Present water temperature in the 36 degree range.