Muskegon River Fishing Report – May 11, 2023 – Newaygo, Michigan

The Muskegon river spring steelhead run of 2023 is coming to an end and in general, has been a pretty good run overall. It was better than many feared after having a fair fall steelhead last year, with the first of the fish coming in from lake Michigan in early March and the last ones either in the river now or on their way up river.

It’s now time to focus on trout, bugs and the best dry fly fishing opportunities of the year, which are just around the corner. With 4-6 weight fly rods, we’ll be casting imitations of tan caddis to start, followed by sulphurs, then gray drakes and isonychias following. Can’t count out the blue wing olives on cloudy days and we never know when a random march brown will show up early in the spring season.

Not far behind the trout dry fly fishing, we will see more smallmouth bass make their way up river for their annual spawn, which has grown in fish numbers in the last handful of years.

With both fly fishing and light spin tackle, we’ll fish for both “smally’s” and resident Brown and Rainbow trout, up to the end of June and after that, smallmouth will be the primary species, but can’t count out the occasional pike or walleye.

Muskegon river water levels are a bit over 2,000 cfs and river temperatures are climbing with each nice, warm, sunny day and are currently in the 53-54 degree range.

For now,

Jeff