Muskegon River Fishing Report – December 8, 2022 – Newaygo, Michigan

The Muskegon river early winter steelhead fishing continues, with fish moving closer towards their “winter lies” as river temperatures drop into the lower 40’s. The river continues to run very clear, with visibility exceeding 10′ and as a result, we’re downsizing our offerings to both migratory steelhead and resident Brown and Rainbow trout.

With both fly fishing and conventional equipment, we’re finding fish in some of the likely spots, along with some fish who are holding in some very different and often difficult, water to fish.

Fishing pressure has dropped off and with less traffic, finding fish “where they’re supposed to be” is a matter of simply covering a lot of water on any given day.

Once river temperatures drop below 40, fishes metabolism drop, they do become a big more lethargic, but they still have to eat !

A combination of washed out egg patterns, along with small nymphs will be on the menu for fish in the colder weeks ahead. Downsizing line/tippet will help as well for those fishing such patterns.

Some are still getting steelhead to take a swung fly, but this too will drop off as water temperatures drop.

We did find some brighter colored steelhead yesterday, which is a sign that some new ones have entered the river system from lake Michigan.

With some moderate weather now and in the short term forecast, there should not be a lot of change to river conditions as we inch closer to Christmas.

More to follow…

Jeff