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Muskegon River Trout Fishing
"Hatch fishing at it's finest!"

Hatch fishing for Trout during May, June, July and August.

There is nothing better than casting a dry fly line to a rising 20" Brown Trout. Over the holiday weekend, we've been rewarded with 7 Trout approaching the 20" mark and this is just the very beginning of great fly fishing for Trout.
July offers the some of the finest dry fly fishing in the Midwest!

We have dates open for both full days and the ever popular evening hatch trips- These trips start around 5pm - 10pm. This is possibly the best chance to get into a trophy Muskegon River Brown Trout.

Hatch fishing for Trout during May, June, July and August.
We are sincerely looking forward to the introduction of the "Bubbler System" above the Croton Dam- This should make for some outstanding Trout Fishing below the Dam in Croton. We could once again experience Caddis Super Hatches!

Wow! What a change in weather! Cooler temperatures forecasted and the fishing has been very good! Muskegon River Trout and Smallmouth Bass has been great with the huge amounts on Sucker and Steelhead fry. Fry patterns have been the flavor of the month. Both Trout and Smallmouth have been feeding heavily on fry. Trout have also keyed up on Caddis emergers and or fry depending on the weather.

Cinnamon Caddis Emerger

During the day- Cinnamon Caddis and Caddis emergers have been fishing well on a floating line either skittered of swung. Most of the suckers have finished spawning but there are a few scattered pockets. Swinging small streamers has also been productive, better on overcast days.

June and July are the the time for Dry fly fishing with the Isonychia Bicolor. (A similar look as the Gray Drake but with a much more husky looking body, with a burgundy or purple hue, Iso's do not spinner fall in larger numbers but draw larger rising Trout if they are around, usually in late evening. It can be the Muskegon's most overlooked hatch, typically found in the middle to lower sections of the river.) Caddis are the primary hatch in the upper sections. ( Pine to Croton Dam)

Isonychia Bicolor (Mahogany Dun) - July Trout Fishing (White Gloved Howdies-Mahogany Dun) River perfect level-2450-cfs- 63 degree water temp.

Muskegon River Trout - There are lots of suckers spawning and encouraging
the bigger browns and rainbows to feed on nymphs behind sucker redds. Excellent numbers of cinnamon caddis seen in the last couple of days, mostly during the afternoon period. Many of stocked Trout targeting dry fly Caddis with an occasional big fish on the surface. As water temperatures increase, larger Trout will come up. Sulpher emergence is soon to come. Streamer stripping with salmon fry patterns has been working well for larger Trout - We need warmer water to get the big boys to chase streamers.

Just a quick note: We are now offering evening/afternoon hatch trips for Muskegon River Trout and evening mayfly hatches. Both Gray Drakes and Isonychia offer excellent hatches on the Muskegon River during June, July, and August.

Gray Drakes and Isonychia Bicolor are the upcoming attraction with late May and early June being prime-time! The Gray Drake offers some of the best dry fly fishing of the year for larger Trout!

Hot Patterns: Gray Drake Spinners, Spent wing drakes, Gray Drake soft-hackles, Sulpher emergers, Sulpher duns. Sucker spawn and smaller pheasant tail
nymphs also producing good numbers of trout through out the day.
Streamer Patterns: Bi-polar parr, small minnow patterns, Mallard spider, Steelhead & Salmon fry patterns, Zoo Caugar (yellow or ginger)

Hatch Info: Lots of bugs!! Prolific hatches at this time of year! Sulphers, Caddis, Gray Drakes, and Isonychia Bicolor. If you are a fly fisherman, this is the time to fish! Hatches and spinner falls have been very good on warm evenings. Lots of dry fly activity just before dark, producing some of the biggest trout of the year during the spinners falls. Sulphers are producing many rising fish in the mid-sized range. Iso's and Drakes are producing the big boys!

There are also some Hexes available below Hardy Dam and below Roger's Dam providing some big browns and some nice smallmouth on dries!!
Medium water levels and massive abundance of salmon fry also have larger trout on the feed with streamers during the day.

Guided Trout Fishing On Michigan's Muskegon River!! During the months of May and June, Fly Fishing for resident Brown and Rainbows Trout is excellent. The Muskegon River is chock full of spawning White, Hognose, and Redhorse suckers. These spawning suckers produce vast amounts of roe that the trout gorge on. Hence "Sucker Spawn patterns" so favored by anglers in Lake Erie tributaries. Fishing floating lines and strike indicators behind spawning sucker redds produces big numbers of trout during the day. Indicator Nymphing for Muskegon River Trout.
Afternoon trout trips have been out producing morning trips: much less angling pressure and more shade on the water. Stone flies have played and important role in the afternoon bite!

In the evenings of May and June, The Muskegon River is home to the famed Gray Drake Spinner fall and the Iysonchia Bicolor, two large varieties of may flies that tend to spinner fall just before dark. These flies attract the attention of trophy brown on the dry fly. These trout may be selective at times, but are certainly well worth the wait. The guides at Betts Guide Service, wait the entire year for the six weeks of spinner falls and incredible dry fly fishing!

Trophy Trout of May 2009

Muskegon River Brown Trout- Michigan trout guides (5/27/08) Gray Drake Spinner
Muskegon River Trout Guides- Mi trout fishing guides (5/25/09) Sucker spawn patterns.

Muskegon River Rainbow trout Fly Fishing - Mi trout guides (5/26/08) Red Ass- soft hackle
Our guides excel in Fly Fishing for Muskegon River Trout. Michigan Trout Guides on the Muskegon River for Michigan Trout and Smallmouth bass. June affers tremendous dry fly fishing during the summer monthes. Muskegon Trout guides offer full service guided fly fishing for anglers- Chicago trout guides, MI guided trout fishing charters in Grand Rapids. 49505

For fishing guide, May is a time for trout on streamers
Friday, May 20, 2008
By Howard Meyerson
Press Outdoors Editor (Grand Rapids Press, May 20th 2008)

NEWAYGO -- It was late in the day that Chad Betts let a long cast go, dropping his fly into a shallow riffle near shore.

..The commotion that followed would have made any fishing filmmaker proud. There was a flash and a leap and lengthy struggle.
Betts, a 28-year-old fishing guide and my host for the day, was stripping line in madly, working a beautiful 17-inch brown trout back to the boat. The fish was reluctant. It dove underneath the boat and refused to give in.
But Betts, a Newaygo native and 11-year veteran of professional guiding, has a deft touch.
...A few more moments and it was within netting distance -- capping off an excellent day of fishing trout on the Muskegon River.
We had boated and released roughly two dozen trout, a mix of browns and rainbows up to 10 or so inches. Hardly big fish, but eager and fun to catch.
Then there were the two larger, dark-speckled browns, running 15 or so and now 17 inches. Fat and sassy fish that made a day of sitting in the cold worthwhile.
Some would have called the conditions less than stellar this day. Many anglers steer away from fishing when a cold front comes through. And others might have wondered why we were fishing the little shallow riffles.
But the little riffles, with just a foot of water, were where the fish seemed to be. And though we fished both shallow and deep, the big fish screamed out from the shallows hunting for exactly what we gave them -- streamers.

"I fish streamers in May because there are no hatches unless it is unseasonably warm. The water is low and fish are dialed in to fry," said Betts, the owner of Betts Guide Service in Newaygo.
"Trout key in on bait fish( Salmon Fry)at this time of year."
And that was the game: to entice them with bits of feathers and fur that resembled bait fish. Streamers are flies that imitate a variety of bait fish, both large and small. They are fished below the surface using split shot or sink-tip fly lines to get them down in a current.
The 200-grain Rio sink-tip line we were using has 24 feet of weighted line married to a shooting flyline. Casting it requires shortening up, making a false cast or two to get the rhythm and then let it fly.
The flies are cast accross the current into the shallows and other fishy looking places and retrieved as it drifts by stripping line in, creating a realistic darting action. Our trip was a relaxing mix of floating downstream and casting to likely spots or anchoring and casting using what Betts calls a "slip-strip" method for the retrieve.
That means a steady rhythmic alternating pattern of a strip followed by a release of line, strip-release, strip-release.
"That gives it a natural look," Betts said.
The choice of streamers were several. We started with what Betts called a large bunny leech streamer that ran two- to three-inches long, a fly that seemed to get more nips at its tail than hookups. So Betts switched us over to a shorter streamer. Most fall into to four broad categories: the salmon and steelhead fry immitations, the general baitfish immitations, the sculpins and things like leeches and crawfish.
"I could live on this one," Betts said pointing to the smaller yellow mallard flank streamer, the steelhead frypattern that he tied -- the one just retrieved from the mouth of the big trout.
It was the same pattern that hooked the other big trout of the day -- a a wholchunky, full-bellied fish that had gorged itself on steelhead fry, regurgitated one when it hit the net and was hungry enough to still be mouthing Betts' streamer.
We had anchored near a gravel bar mid-afternoon. Betts was busy working the fish in the shallows. It is where the fish come to feed, he said. Then they return to the pools to rest and digest.
"This is the time of year they go around eating fry in all the little pockets," said Betts, who cut his teeth fishing the river as a Newaygo High School student and eventually went to study fish biology at the University of Michigan. Two years into his curriculum he opted to cut his education short, succumbing instead to lure of the river and becoming a full-time guide.
"Guiding gets in your blood. It's hard to walk away," says Betts who guides clients over 200 days a year whether that is for trout, salmon, steelhead or smallmouth bass.
"You may fish a river several days in a row, but you never have the same day twice. You can't put a price on seeing a bald eagle or osprey come by or being out and enjoying the weather."
Today, we see the eagle, not the osprey. And, of course, it never hurts to see a client smile after hooking a couple of good size Muskegon river brown trout.
"I've fished in Alaska and Colorado and what keeps me coming back here is that the Muskegon River has everything. Here the seasons are all married together. We have salmon in the fall, followed by steelhead in the winter. When those are done we have some nice trout and when those are done we get into smallmouth.
May, Betts says, it time for trout on streamers.

© 2009 Grand Rapids Press. Used with permission.

Muskegon River Fly Fishing Guides for Trout, Steelhead, and Smallmouth Bass. Pere Marquette River guides excel is Streamers for MI trout. Mi Trout guides for the Muskegon and Pere Marquette Rivers during summer trout in West Michigan. Trout-Guide for Streamers for trophy trout in the west Michigan area rviers including the White, Pere Marquette, and Manistee Rivers.