Muskegon River Trout - Fly Fishing Hatches

Muskegon River Trout Fishing - Dry Fly Hatch fishing at it's finest!

 

Sucker spawn is for kids! It's great opportunity to introduce your son or daughter into fly fishing. Trout fishing during the sucker's spawn has constant fish landing action with the small 8" - 12" trout. They're also sure to hook into a couple big trout! They're great for kids to learn the fundamentals of fly fishing and have a great time on the water. This technique is very easy to learn. Half days are also perfect for this technique.

For those of you interested in trophy brown trout fishing, we are extremely excited about the upcoming Gray Drake spinner fall! If you look back through the fishing report, you'll see we have landed some giant resident brown trout throughout the winter and early spring. All of these big second year trout will be in the shallows feeding on Gray Drake mayflies. Dry fly fishing the Gray Drake spinners  is an angler's best opportunity by far, to land a trophy brown trout. Sight fishing to these big browns is an adrenaline rush! You're hunting trophy browns!

May & June are the the time for Dry fly fishing with the Gray Drake Spinners. (Gray Drakes are a mid-sized may fly with smoke clear wings, a thin variegated body, and a white ring around the eyes.) Most spinner falls occur just be for dark.

Drakes also always spinner fall on a riffle or fast current. Muskegon's most overlooked hatch, typically found in the middle to lower sections of the river. Thornapple - Henning Park.

Dry fly trout fishing the Grey Drake  in late May. Without question, my favorite time of the year for trophy brown trout on the Muskegon River! Sight fishing giant pig browns feeding in the evenings on the surface. It's one of the only times of the year that browns are less wary during daylight hours. These trout gorge on Gray Drakes and nymphs preparing to emerge.

Muskegon River Hatches: March Browns, Caddis, Quill Gordons, Black quills, and Sulphers. Gray Drakes coming soon! We still have good numbers of steelhead in the system on shallow gravel redds. Key locations are holding fish. Chinook Salmon fry are everywhere against the banks. Resident Trout are feeding on fry and parr big time - Making for some fantastic Streamer fishing during the next several weeks.

Coming up in late May, early June, we have the Gray Drake spinner fall offering some of the best dry fly fishing there is in the mid west!

Muskegon River Trout Fishing Report

Muskegon River Winter Steelhead - Float Fishing the Chrome!

I spent the afternoon centerpin fishing with Jim and found the weather to be great and the Steelhead whiling to bite! We fished the upper sections of the Muskegon River and found a decent number of fish in each area that we floated. Most of the Steelhead from today were located in the deeper portions of the runs and deep tailouts. They seemed to fight hard and several of them even managed to jump. Water temps are still in the high 30's - low 40's keeping Steelhead aggressive to the correct offerings.


Our technique today was one of our favorites, Centerpin float fishing with floats and spawn. We also landed several fish on tiny Little Nipper jigs and waxworms. Long, extended drifts, light tippets, and different offerings paid off big time as the water levels remain low and clear. I feel there is a great number of Steelhead throughout the river system. These fish are wise and may have been caught and released before. A quiet approach and a clean drifts certainly helped to bring fish to hand.

Muskegon River Fall Steelhead

Muskeon River Steelhead fishing has been outstanding the past few days. John display a gorgeous Steelhead landed while fly fishing with a peach clown egg pattern. Egg flies have played a huge role in landing Salmon and Steelhead as Chinook roe or spawn has been the primary food source. November is the best month for Fall Steelhead as numbers begin to improve!