Muskegon River Fishing Report – Newaygo, MI – May 19, 2015

Muskegon River Fishing Report – West Michigan Fly Fishing

I lost a friend and long time fishing guest not long ago and came across a picture of him from the past….R.I.P. Dan, you will be missed.

The Muskegon river near Newaygo, MI is still running a bit above average flows due to the rains that came through most of Michigan nearly a week ago.  Long overdue, were rains that made it to the upper stretches of the watershed, from Big Rapids up to Grayling.  Although west Michigan has received a fair amount of precipitation in the last month, the north central and north east portion of the lower peninsula had been pretty dry since early April.

We are still pursuing steelhead on the Muskegon river, as our “May fish” continue to come in.  With cooler weather in general over the last week and forecasted for another week+, we could see steelhead up to the end of the month.

Cloudy days have been the best to be on the river casting baitfish imitations to resident Rainbow and Brown trout, as well as “dropback” steelhead – those that have already spawned and have dropped back off spawning grounds to feed, before beginning their return trip to lake Michigan.

Not much for hatches just yet, although I did see the first Caddis of the spring emerge in recent days.  With both spawning steelhead and as of late, increasing numbers of spawning suckers, resident trout have plenty of food coming to them in the form of eggs and insect larva that gets kicked up during fish spawning activity, so they aren’t “looking up” for insects on the surface.  As spawning activity winds down, more dry fly fishing will become a more viable option for the fly fisher.

Swinging wet flies for trout has been producing for those looking to work riffle water in search of resident trout.  Indicator nymph fishing around spawning fish with 4-6 weight rods, will find fish as well.

Present water temperature in the 57-58 degree range, but this could change in the days ahead as we have some rather cool nights in the forecast.