Muskegon River Fishing Report – Newaygo, MI – September 30, 2015

Muskegon River Fishing Report – Newaygo, MI – September 30, 2015

Stephen, from west MI, with a nice, bright Pere Marquette Chinook salmon !

The Muskegon river near Newaygo, MI is presently running above average flows for late September.  The heavy rains that came through most of west Michigan early this week brought levels up in most rivers, which is GOOD for our fall Chinook salmon run.

Resident Brown and Rainbow trout are being caught on spotty green caddis hatches, but this may change with more water and dropping water temperatures.  They’re also being caught with indicator nymph fishing rigs, as well as small streamers on sink tip lines. 

Smallmouth bass are beginning to move to their fall feeding grounds and will be packing on some weight in preparation for the cooler weather ahead.  Both topwater poppers/waking flies and lures, as well as subsurface imitations of baitfish and crayfish will produce fish.

The fall Chinook salmon season is in progress and we have “kings” staging in the deeper pools and runs while they prepare for their annual spawn.  Once they begin spawning, we’ll surely see fall steelhead showing up to feast on the loose eggs and insect larva that gets kicked up during the whole spawning process.

We’re still catching fall salmon on the Pere Marquette river, which is where I’ve been doing trips for the past month+ in between a few trips on the Muskegon river, but not for long !!!  Come the first week of October I will be done with the northern rivers and concentrate on both salmon and steelhead through October, November and December.

Present water temperature in the Muskegon river is in the mid 60’s.