Muskegon River Fishing Report – October 29, 2023 – Newaygo, Michigan

The Muskegon river is amidst some changes for this time of fall, as the annual Chinook salmon spawning run comes to an end here shortly and fall/early winter steelhead runs kicks into high gear. There are also some very nice resident Brown and Rainbow trout being caught as well.

Both migratory steelhead and resident trout are keying in on the easy meals of salmon eggs, which provide the highest protein food available to them as they fatten up for the colder weeks and months ahead.

With both fly fishing and conventional equipment setups, we’re able to target both over many miles of river below Croton dam. River levels often play a key role in the fall steelhead run and when we’re low on water, the steelhead can be slow in coming.

The recent rains that came through much of Michigan and the Midwest were long overdue, as we hadn’t had any rain to speak of in the key parts of the Muskegon river watershed, in 2+ months. This did help bring river levels up a little, but after having reached “average” flows in recent days, the river level looks to be dropping now. We could use another round of rain very soon in order to bring more steelhead into the system.

As we get into November, we’re hoping to see new steelhead arrive and make it up river to the Newaygo area, as this is where a majority of the last spawning Chinook salmon will be. We are always at the mercy of Mother Nature when it come to migratory fish and fishing, but this year has been one of the oddest I’ve seen in over 2 decades….come on rain !!

Based on a number of long range forecast models, it sounds like we may be in for a mild “winter” and if this holds true, we’ll have good, fishable river conditions through the holidays and into 2024.

Good fishing !

Jeff