Grand River Fishing Report: September 2016

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[dropcap]I[/dropcap]f you are looking for a chance at catching a variety of species during the month of September, look no further than the Grand River.  You have the migratory fish starting to come in such as the coho, king salmon, steelhead, and brown trout; you also have the resident fish such as the smallmouth, walleye, pike, and largemouth that are active. If you are looking for salmon and migratory trout species on the Grand River the 6th Street Dam area is your best bet during the month of September. Although we do not get many king salmon in the Grand River anymore since the DNR cut the plants there are still a few that show up. Coho salmon usually show up in good numbers, but they do not stick around for long so take advantage.

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If you can when they show up. Steelhead trickle in all month, we see a mixture of Michigan strain steelhead and some stray Indiana-planted skamania. We see a few lake run brown trout showing up in September as well, although not as many as in the past and most are not as large as the Seeforellen strain of browns that we used to get, but we still see some decent sized ones here and there. You can use just about any tactic to catch these fish, but some of the more popular ways are fishing spawn or egg patterns either under a bobber or drifted along the bottom, casting lures such as spoons or spinners, and fly fishing streamers or egg patterns.

The warm water species take a backseat to the cold water fish once they show up for most people, but there is still some great fishing to be had for smallmouth, walleye, and pike. The warm water species are really on the feed during the month of September, and they provide some great action. Most of the Grand River system provides good fishing, from Jackson down to Grand Haven you can usually find enough fish to keep you busy. You can catch the bass, walleye, and northerns on crankbaits, live bait, jigs, spinnerbaits, and topwater presentations.

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