M ay is a great time to fish the Grand River. There are lots of shore opportunities as well as miles and miles of good boat water. Steelhead, bass, pike, walleye, catfish, panfish, etc… are all options during the month of May.
With the colder than average temperatures we have had this year we should still have some good steelhead fishing in the Grand River. Up near 6th Street Dam and in the tributaries will be your best bet but they will spread throughout the system as well as and move up and drop back out to Lake Michigan. Look for these fish to be holding in the faster more oxygenated water for the most part. Anglers can catch them in the slower deeper stuff, but they will be dropping back or cruising through it and not holding for any amount of time. Fishing beads under floats is a good way to get into these fish up near the 6th Street Dam, spawn bags or jigs can also work well. Casting spinners, crank baits, or spoons is another great option to connect with the late running fish or drop backs in just about any type of water. When casting spoons or spinners, I like to fish a silver or gold blade if the water is clear. If the water has some stain to it, a silver and chartreuse or silver and orange seems to work well. Crankbaits such as husky jerks, floating rapalas, shad raps, or smithwicks, work great on hungry drop backs when they are around.
Walleye and pike are other options come May. Casting or trolling crank baits will take fish, hot-n-tots, rapalas, and flicker shads are my go to baits. Fishing sucker minnows under bobbers in the deep dead pools or the slack water at the creek mouths is a good way to connect with pike. Once the water starts to warm up dragging crawlers along the river bottom can be a good way to put walleye in the boat as well.
Smallmouth bass usually start to fire up in May as well. Look for rocky areas along the river and target those. Crankbaits, tubes, swimbaits, spinner baits, minnows, beetlespins, etc… White, chartreuse, or anything crawdad color seems to work well.
Flathead and channel cats are biting well in May. They pull some big ones out up by the Dam in the boils with creek chubs or bluegills anchored on the bottom. Fishing in front of log jams or in the deep woody holes up and downstream from Grand Rapids with creek chubs, alewive, shad, crawlers, skein, or stink bait on the bottom will get you into some good fish. Be sure to use some stout gear if you want to have a chance at landing a trophy-sized fish. A heavy rod with a casting reel loaded with 50 to 80 pound braid is a good set up to pull those hog flatheads out of the wood.