Muskegon River Fishing Report – October 4, 2020 – Newaygo, Michigan

Muskegon River Fishing Report – October 4, 2020 – Newaygo, Michigan

The Muskegon river fishing report for October 4, 2020 is focused on both the resident trout fishing and the onset of our migratory salmon run.  Trout fishing has improved as water temperatures came down over the last couple weeks and with the first batch of salmon in the river, some big game fish opportunities are available. 

Much of my time over the last month+ has been guiding the salmon run on the Pere Marquette river and recently, the Manistee river as well.  Fellow guides have reported an unusual sighting recently, Coho salmon in the Muskegon river !

As water temperatures drop with cooler nights and hopefully some rain to bring river levels up, we’ll see the Muskegon river big game fish season really kick into gear….but we NEED that rain and it looks like we may have to wait a while.   Click HERE for current forecasted weather for the Newaygo, Michigan area.  With the low water we have now, some stretches of the lower Muskegon river will be quite shallow and make the salmon migration a bit more of a challenge,  but they’ll make it !  Click HERE for current Muskegon river water flow data.

With both fly fishing and spin tackle equipment, we’ll be fishing the migratory salmon up to the end of October, followed by fall and early winter steelhead in November, December and even into January depending on how quickly the heart of early “winter” arrives.  Resident Brown and Rainbow trout will be eager for the salmon to get into the river and begin to spawn, as those easy meals of salmon eggs make for a great base to prepare for the colder weeks of winter.

With such an odd start to the Pere Marquette rivers salmon run, which had very few fish in the river during what is historically “prime time”, it will be interesting to see how things pan out on the Muskegon river.  The Pere Marquette DID get fish and quite a few of them over the last 7-8 days…..but they were about 3 weeks later than normal in getting into the river and nobody has a good theory as to why at this point.

All that being said, it’s fishing for migratory big game fish and the key word there is “migratory”.  

Any who are considering a guided fishing trip yet this fall would be best served touching base with me sooner than later, as my October is completely booked, November finds 5 open dates and up to December 20, I have 7 open dates that month.

Good fishing to all and have a good fall !

Jeff