Muskegon River Fishing Report – July 19, 2023 – Newaygo, Michigan

The Muskegon river continues to fish well in and around the Newaygo area, for both resident Brown and Rainbow trout, as well as Smallmouth bass.

With both fly fishing and light spin tackle, we’re getting into “smally’s” throughout the river system from Newaygo down stream towards Muskegon itself, along with trout from Croton dam down to Newaygo.

After a brutal June with next to no precipitation – driest June in recorded history – mother nature came around and provided some long overdue rains over the last few weeks, to salvage what was looking like, a very challenging summer of Muskegon river fishing.

There are still some insect hatches going on that are getting the trout to “look up”, but those may be coming to an end here shortly. The Smallmouth bass have been receptive to topwater flies and lures at times, but the better fishing overall has been subsurface, with baitfish, crayfish and attractor fly patterns and lures.

As we approach August, the trout fishing will likely drop off, but Smallmouth fishing should remain good through the rest of summer.

We’re not far off from seeing the first sightings of early run Chinook salmon and following them in October will be the Grand Prize of great lakes big game fish….steelhead !