Muskegon River Steelhead Fishing Report – November 13, 2019 – Newaygo, Michigan

Muskegon River Steelhead Fishing Report – November 13, 2019 – Newaygo, Michigan

West Michigan resident Butch Z., with a colorful;, Muskegon river steelhead caught the other day.

The Muskegon river steelhead fishing report for November 13, 2019 in the Newaygo, Michigan area is focused on the early onset of winter, our present steelhead fishing and forecast for the rest of November.  Click HERE for current and forecasted weather for the Newaygo, Michigan area.

The 2019 Muskegon river fall  steelhead “season” showed promising signs around the last week of October, when we had high water, river temperatures in the upper 40’s and our last good push of fall run, spawning salmon that came in from lake Michigan.  For a number of days, there were fresh and feisty steelhead not far behind spawning salmon, eager to take advantage of the easy meal of eggs and insects being kicked up by spawning salmon.  This did not last for very long though, as we saw fish numbers drop over the following week-10 days, river levels come down a bit and MUCH colder weather come in.  One factor that I think may have been overlooked quite a bit, is lake Michigan water temperatures being much warmer than river temperatures, for many rivers in west Michigan.  Present water levels are pretty good for this time in November, however we’re seeing river temperatures drop much faster than normal over the last couple decades.  Click HERE for current Muskegon river water flow data.

Larry got a NICE one yesterday !

All that said, there are steelhead in the system, it’s simply a matter of covering water, being pretty thorough in how one fishes “runs” and finding fish that are willing to bite.  With both fly fishing and light spin tackle equipment, we’ve been fishing in/around the Newaygo area for the most part, however future outings may find us fishing down stream a bit, depending on how much of next weeks “warm weather” that’s forecasted for mid week, actually makes it here !

If we get some relief from mother nature, we should be fine through the month of December.  If we get into another cold snap before or shortly after Thanksgiving, like the one that’s getting most of the U.S. right now, we may quickly fall into “winter mode” on the river.

Present water temperature around 41 degrees in the Newaygo area, with flows around 3,000 cfs.