Muskegon River Spring Steelhead Fishing Report – March 28, 2015

Muskegon River

Scott, from west MI, with a “chromer” from his outing with friends on the Muskegon river.

The Muskegon river near Newaygo, MI is running below average flows for the end of March, but slowly coming into shape as the spring steelhead run is in full swing.  After many weeks of fishing for steelhead that had “wintered” over in the river, we had new fish come in from lake Michigan this past week.

Water temperatures are still cold and the brutal last near week of chilly air temps, along with north based winds, has kept the river from warming up much.  The forecast for the next week should help a lot and once we see water temperatures break the 40 degree mark, things will change QUICKLY !

We’re pursuing spring steelhead with both fly fishing and light spin tackle The fly fisher has a couple good options for getting flies down in the zone where fish are at; chuck-n-duck and indicator nymphing rigs.  The light spin tackle angler could also bottom bounce much like chuck-n-duck, as well as running flies/beads/bait under bobbers.  The theme for “holding water” right now is slow to medium current runs, with depth in the 6-10′ range and with bottom structure such as large boulders.

Nathan, from west MI, with a dandy Muskegon river steelhead.

As water temperatures rise, fish activity will pick up dramatically.   After having seen a few adult stone flies that had hatched last week, I have  not seen any.  If/when this DOES happen, we can only hope that water temps are conducive to trout coming to the surface for the years first dry fly fishing on the Muskegon river.

Present water temperature in the 37-38 degree range.