Trout fishing remains excellent on the Mighty Muskegon River. Big spinner falls of Gray Drake, Isonychia Bicolor, and the ever present Cinnamon Caddis emergence, every evening from 7pm until dark. Hatches draw out big brown trout like this guy pictured above. Michigan offers wonderful evening hatch trout fishing on the Muskegon River. “Work during the day, fish in the evening!” (231) 519-7348
Evening “Hatch Masters” Trout specials going on now! $250 for an afternoon – evening of great Gray Drake, and Caddis hatches, entomology lessons, casting, and all around great trout fishing.
Work all day, then hit the river for an evening hatch! June evening hatch trout trips on the Muskegon & Manistee Rivers. Morning Half days also available. Text – (231) 519-7348
Trout fishing has been outstanding over the last several days!! Great sucker spawn nymphing followed by some very good dry fly hatches in the evening. Heavy Gray Drake Spinner falls with BIG trout rising!
Excellent trout fishing right now on the Mighty Muskegon River. Jessica displays a very respectable brown trout from today. Stripping small streamers against that bank has paid big dividends. (6/16)
Fat and healthy Michigan Trout. Bruce with one of several very nice trout. Isonychia nymphs on a sink tip fly line, working well. It’s great to see good trout now. (6/16)
Time to think about booking your Fall King Salmon fishing trip on the lower Pere Marquette. Casting crankbaits for big chrome kings on light spinning tackle! These monsters crush Thundersticks with fists of fury – Awesome power and great table fare. Kings are a riot on the lower rivers of the Manistee and Pere Marquette. $395 per 2 anglers.
Was the perfect storm last night! High humidity, no wind, and tons of Gray Drakes on the water. Don with a pig brown from yesterday evening after the rains. Massive clouds of drake spinners on the water! (6/12)
With the sucker spawn over, it’s hatch time now!! Check out this beastly brown that Dave caught on a Gray Drake spinner. Big hatches and dry fly fishing this month! (Caddis, Gray Drake, Isonychia Bicolor ) (6/10)
Ok. I finally give. Mercy! This is the last Steelhead of the 2014 season. 6/10 is a new personal record. What an awesome spring steelhead season!! Special thanks goes out to all the clients that spent the day on my boat! Hopefully ya’ll had a great time on the water and caught lots of chrome! We look forward to October 20th when fall bullets enter the river!! (6/10)
Spot and stalk – Trout Nymphing to trophy brown trout. Steve landed this stunning brown this morning while drifting nymphs for trout. Trout Fishing on the Manistee, Muskegon, and Pere Marquette has been phenomenal lately. Lots of healthy fat Michigan trout. (6/6)
Andy with a beast of a brown trout taken on a tiny nymph while fly fishing behind spawning gravel. Trout fishing has been great over the past several days. Water levels are perfect for fishing. (6/6)
Madelyn with a gorgeous fat brown from today. Its safe to say that our trout are not starving!! Fat Michigan Brown Trout for sure! Nymphing and small fry patterns fishing well. (6/3)
Stomach contents of an 18″ Muskegon River Brown Trout that I landed this evening. Four yellow eggs are Red Horse Sucker spawn. The alvin are actually freshly hatched Steelhead fry that are just now emerging from the gravel. Large Trout prey heavily on these things in early June. Notice the lack of insects in the stomach contents? These are “High octane” food sources, and are easy to catch. (5/31)
Mike and Bryant joined me for an evening “Hatch Master’s Evening trout session.” These guys we pleasantly surprised landing a pile of big steelhead, several large brown trout, and a bunch of smaller trout. Overall, it was a fantastic evening on the water with lots of fly fishing action. (6/5)
I know, every day, I say, I’m finished will steelhead but, one can not merely just pass up a redd with over a dozen fish on it. Logically, we just had to fish ’em! Mike and Bryant hooked and landed a bunch of steelhead on sucker spawn egg flies, and steelhead fry patterns. Fishing was very good with no other boats on the water. (5/28)
Early June is the time of year for BIG Trout! Michigan offers some exceptional, and mostly over looked, great trout fishing. Whether it’s nymphing behind suckers, stripping streamers, or dry fly fishing the drakes, Michigan has lots of big trout. (5/27)
As we say good bye to possibly one of the most epic steelhead migrations that I have ever experience, sheer numbers of steelhead that we had, with incredible size! Trust me MR. Chrome Dome, You will be missed! 2014 will go down in the history books as one of the most phenomenal steelhead years ever, we should be so lucky as to ever have such a great year class of steelhead…
From here on out, it’s all about trout, sucker spawn that is, yellow gold! Nothing draws my attention more than big old brown trout sitting behind a big ball of Red Horse doing the nasty! That’s right! Resident rainbows and brown alike love sitting down wind of spawning suckers. A somgasporg of eggs, fry, nymphs and whatever else suckers dig out of the gravel. Nymphing behind suckers has become my obsession for big trout! It’s just about the only time of the year, I dig out my good camera and go fun fishing!!
For the next two weeks I’ll be on the Muskegon and the Big Manistee River hunting big brown trout with a nymphing rod in hand. I’ll do my best to keep you posted as to how things are going. Without a doubt, early June is my favorite time to trout fish before the more noticeable hatches begin.
It’s almost June and Matt and Tom are enjoying a Steelhead double of two chromers! How do we tell clients that fishing is awesome right now with little or no angling pressure! Double digit hook ups on great fish during nice weather. This rarely happens in steelhead fishing in Michigan. (5/23)
Matt fights a leaping chromer! These fish are bad ass fighters this time of year!! Lots of fish with great jumps and drag ripping runs! I love May Steelhead!
Did someone say Brown Trout? May also offers a chance at some trophy Muskegon River Brown Trout. Our Muskegon River trout are Ginormous! These egg feeders have a much higher average size for hold over browns and rainbows! These fish put on the feed bag year around! Chubby Trout! (5/23)
We had a wonderful day fishing steelhead with Holly and her father, Paul. They’re from Kentucky and were in search of large Brown trout. Well, they were about 10 days too early for big trout but wow did we get in to some great steelhead fishing!! (5/21)
Fishing this week has been nothing less than excellent!! I guided both a full day and a half day today and we hooked up over 25 steelhead in the course of 13 hours of fishing, two trips. We did both techniques, both float fishing on spinning gear, and fly fishing. Both styles were very effective!
It’s a far cry from fishing in February or March to hook a handful of fish while freezing your butt off! It feels great to have some outstanding steelhead fishing with air temperatures in the low 70’s! Steelhead are healthy and are in great condition for this time of year and have been fantastic fighters! Spawning fish on gravel, drop back steelhead, and many smaller chrome May hens. Most people think its about over but this year, it’s actually some of the best fishing we’ve had all year due to the long winter and very cold river water temperatures! Come take advantage of special guide trip rates from now until June first!
Send us a text for open dates and fishing trip specials… (231) 519-7348
We had a fantastic afternoon of steelhead fishing! Armond has been a professional fly tyer for nearly 50 years and the results paid off big time! We had some really good fly fishing today. I can’t believe these are May Steelhead! (5/21)
It didn’t take Holly long to get into a bunch of really nice steelhead. Check out this buck she landed just as it started to rain. Lots and lots of May steelhead! (5/21)
Banner day on the Muskegon River! Holly and Paul were beatin’ checks on big chrome steelhead! Whoo Hoo! May steelhead are a blast on the fly rod! (5/21)
Joni and Tim put on a clinic this afternoon. We were the last boat on the water this evening and we hooked fish like crazy!! When is the last time you saw a bruiser chrome buck in mid May? Yeah! Fishing is that good right now! Water temps are cold with lots of steelhead and perfect river levels. (5/20)
Jim and Sure with a double from today. Both two very nice fish. Every day we’ve found pockets out really nice fish. Keeping my clients on fish ALL day long! Both morning trips and afternoon trips fishing well. (5/15)
Joni, Joni, Joni! What more to say… This girl can fish! Yes Ma’am! Another chrome please! Thank you! Fly fishing is really fun when your hitting banner days on the Muskegon with lots of fish! (5/15)
Grant showing off his fly fishing skills. We had a very enjoyable day on the water, learning new tricks, great conversation, a low impact day relaxing, and bringing a lot of fish to the net! (5/14)
Tom Jr and his Grandfather had a wonderful afternoon on the river today. No other anglers and plenty of fish to go around. Steelhead fishing has been great, today was no exception. Check this fat and healthy buck! (513)
Q with his very first steelhead. what a great Grandpa and Grandson trip. We had lots of fun and excitement with lots of fish landed with comfortable weather, quite a change from most of this spring. (5/12)
Keith and his grandson, Q, were a little hesitant about spending the money for a half day trip. They were pleasantly surprised and were rewarded with constant fish on and with lots of actions and great memories. I was happy to introduce another young angler into steelhead fishing! What a great afternoon on the water. (5/11)
Jim with one of many steelhead from today. For all the days in February when we work so hard to get fish in the net, It feels great to catch double digits in a t-shirt and very comfortable weather. Give us a call for steelhead dates – We are running special pricing from now until June 1st.
With water temperatures still very cold, bright chrome hens continue to be very common. No doubt we will be catching steelhead well into June this year. Kyle with a nice bright hen. (5/12)
Fishing has been outstanding over the last few days! Things have been way behind schedule due to the cold winter that we had. We’re finally experiencing some great steelhead fishing, lots of action and lots of fish! Myself with the largest steelhead that I have ever landed! 22 lbs on the boga. Beast of a buck. (5/9)
It was the day of days for big fish! We had some awesome action all day today. Heavy rain and wind made it an adventure. We enjoyed the weather and had a great day of fishing together. Jess was my third client from 1996. (5/9)
Its been many years since I have fished with Jess. Great friends and some great stories from over 16 years of steelhead fishing together. We had an epic day of fly fishing for steelhead! (5/9)
Phil displays one of many bright and energetic steelhead landed in the last few days. Water temperatures are in the high 40’s making for some phenomenal steelhead fishing on gravel! Sight fishing is now the name of the game with average hook-ups being in the 20’s or more! The bite is definitely on for spawning steelhead and “Drop back Steelhead” Cooler temperatures should keep us fishing well into early June! (5/8)
Phil and Bob landed a pile of fish during the last several days. Small salmon fry patterns and stone flies continue to do well. Caddis flies have also done exceptionally well. Were looking forward to more outstanding fly fishing in the weeks to come! (5/7)
Dane from Finley, Ohio with his first Steelhead. (Guided by Alyssa.) Ron and Dane had an awesome afternoon of catching steelhead. Best flies of the day were fry patterns and small nuke eggs. Sight fishing has been a blast!! (5/6)
We were very pleasantly surprised today at how good steelhead fishing turned out today! We spent the day fly fishing and just landed a ton of steelhead including this beautiful hen. Egg patterns, caddis, and fry patterns are working well. It’s a very late steelhead migration this year, we should easily have steelhead in this river until early June. (5/5)
Joe displays a gorgeous hen from today. We spent the day float fishing on or near gravel and we landed a pile of bright Steelhead. Bobber and spawn put well over a dozen steelhead in the net. Double digit Steelhead. Fish of all stages, pre spawn hens, bright males, and drop back hens. An old school technique that pays off big time on a busy weekend when all the “Prime Gravel” spots are taken, (5/4)
Drop – Back Steelhead holding in the pocket water behind spawning fishing. These fish hammer a well presented bead drifted behind the redds. Grad a bite to eat before heading back to the lake. Bridgett put on a clinic fishing a pocket between three boats and popped a bunch of fish weaving in and out of boats in the “Gaza Strip” (5/4)
Alyssa with a chrome mint silver bullet hen landed one of “Alyssa Beads” these things rock! She air brushes beads to make exact egg replicas. They’re beautiful and Steelhead obviously can’t tell the difference between her beads and the real thing!! They eat ’em like its the real deal!
Joe with a hefty fish from the morning bite. Fly Fishing has also been producing lots of fish. It’s all about the perfect glide on the gravel. Gettin’ it done on stone flies and hex nymphs! Nice buck Joe!
Dustin with a healthy buck! This thing was all over, jumping and running all over the place! We overheard another boat refer to their steelhead being “Foul mouthed” We laughed at the thought of foul mouthed steelhead jumping out and cussing at anglers! A good time was had for sure! (5/1)
Dave with a super tight hen, its hard to believe it’s May first with hens this tight and fishing so good right now. Fly fishing has been astounding over the past week or so. Lots of steelhead entering the river preparing to spawn. (5/1)
John Curley landed a beast of a chrome hen. Bright fish are not the norm usually in late April but this year, they are plentiful to say the least! I love being able to catch and release such a regal fish!! We’re Very excited about the next three weeks and great fishing headed our way!! (5/1)
Alyssa helped us all eat humble pie as she layed the smack down on a pile of steelhead today while fly fishing the Muskegon River!! (5/1)
Carl landed some gorgeous steelhead including this chrome bullet hen!! Chrome steelhead are not usually the norm in late April but they sure are this year! Nice work putting this beauty in the net!
Sam’s first steelhead!! One of the greatest joys of being a fishing guide is having the chance to help young people land their first steelhead. The smile says it best! (4/27)
Alyssa helped colleen land this gorgeous hen. Only 14 but, Colleen is a very experienced fly girl, and has landed many great fish with me over the years!! (Thanks DJ for a great afternoon trip!) (4/27)
It seems that with the awful winter that we had, everything in nature seems to be two weeks behind schedule, steelhead are no exception. This weekend was the first time so far that I started to see many chrome bullet hens landed and piles and piles of steelhead beginning to dig gravel in earnest. There was a spot near Pine st. on Saturday that I counted over a dozen females spawning in the same area at one time. Having that many hens in one area like that is mind blowing for me!! It’s been over a decade since I’ve seen such a late push of fish.
I absolutely feel comfortable guiding clients to big numbers of steelhead well into the first week of June. There’s been quite a few years with big late runs of Steelhead, this year with definitely be one of them. Water temps are still in the low to mid 40’s which is usually unheard of. All of this bodes well for great fishing well into late spring. For all of the clients that rescheduled because of the cold spring, good call because you’ll be into a lot of fish, in comfortable weather and great conditions.
We are excited because water levels, temperatures, and clarity are now perfect for steelhead! Its the perfect storm to bring everything together for some great fishing. The best part of the whole deal is, 90% of the hens we’ve been landing are tight or just barely starting to spawn. That’s some great news! After such a harsh winter, things are several weeks behind schedule, we should have great steelhead fishing well into late May!!
Fishing Steelhead while the weather is still warm. Lots of chrome fish still to come!!
Afternoon trips have also been fishing well for those who work during the day but would like a chance to fish in the afternoon. These trips are available most days are run from 3:30 pm – 8pm. Fishing can be great with much less angler pressure later in the day. Cost is $250 for 2 anglers. We look forward to fishing with you!!
Water levels have been steadily dropping on the Muskegon River. Fishing has all been outstanding with 20 plus hook ups per day being the norm right now. I fished with Paul and Colby for the past 6 days and we landed over 100 steelhead on their outing. We were fly fishing and fished several local rivers. Most of our steelhead were landed on clown eggs, fry patterns, and black stone flies. A few were landed on brightly colored caddis. The best steelhead fishing of the year is upon us and should last well into the next several weeks.
Ed and his daughter, Anna, with her very first steelhead. We proud as a guide service, to promote, and do our best to get kids on the water and into fish! “Hooked for life” is the wat we see it! (4/27)
Abbie with her first Steelhead. There was a million steelhead in the river and everyone was having a blast! Fish were everywhere this weekend and getting these kids into piles of fish was easy, landing them was another story. (4/27)
Afternoon trips have seemed to be landing the most fish lately. Afternoon trips are a great way to relax after a day at work. This time of year, weather is perfect for an afternoon fish. (4/26)
I have to say, I had a blast fishing with these guys on Saturday. We has a lot of fun cracking on each other and giving bs. We did mange to land 11 steelhead in a half day trip. There are piles of fish right now!!
TJ landed this colorful buck today on the fly rod. Fishing has been phenomenal over the past week. We have just been hammering on the steelhead. Water levels continue to drop making for exceptional fishing. Afternoon half days are fishing well. (4/24)
Check this kid out! What a beast of a buck!! Fly fishing the Billy Pate and TFO fly rod, TJ kicked his butt and put this guy in the net! Booh Ya! (4/24)
Allen landed this plump hen today. There was a great bite today. We had fish on all day. Big, bright flies have been the key to gettin’ bit on the Mighty Mo. (4/24 ) Morning trip.
Check out this shiny nice hen! Gravel fishing has been very good. Consistently producing lots of fish. (4/24)
Ed and Alyssa had a fantastic afternoon landing piles of fish today!! Steelhead fishing has been incredible the past several days. This is just the beginning of exceptional fishing. May should be amazing! (4/23)
Banner day on the Mighty Muskegon River. Water temperatures, Levels, and Clarity are all perfect for great fishing. Water temperatures are still relatively cold so we should have outstanding fishing well into late May! Fishing right now is really good! (4/23)
Finally, the Muskegon River is open for business and great Steelhead fishing!! Whoo Hoo! I’m excited to be back home and catching some chrome! After a brief hiatus fishing some other rivers up north, It feels great to home! I haven’t had much of a chance to look around to check the launches but I know the Croton launch, Pine st, and Thornapple all seem to be open. Henning Park should be as well. We also have openings for this week, mon, tues, and wed. If your interested in getting your fish fix!! Kodie and Alyssa are available to guide! It looks like some phenomenal fishing lies ahead. Great weather and Chrome fish!!
