By: Capt. Jeff Bacon
The month of May is a very interesting one for anglers on the Muskegon River in West Michigan. With so much going on with migratory fish coming into the river on their annual spawning run, it’s a literal buffet of options.
Spring steelhead are in the tail end of their annual pilgrimage back to their natal river to reproduce the next generation of “chrome”. Both suckers and sturgeon are coming into the river to spawn as well….and resident brown and rainbow trout are strapping on the feed bag during all of this and packing on some weight feeding on easy meals of loose fish eggs and insects that get kicked up during the spawning process.
Come the end of May, we’ll see the onset of great insect hatches that provide some of the best dry fly fishing for resident trout on the Muskegon River.
For the tail end of the steelhead season, we’ll use both fly fishing and light spin tackle equipment and often this is based on personal preference or what’s working best with present conditions.
For trout, the focus is on fly fishing and we’ll use various techniques to pursue them, from stripping streamers with sinking or sink tip lines, to indicator nymph fishing, as well as dry flies when hatches are present and bringing fish to the surface.
Most of the May steelhead and trout fishing is done in or around the Newaygo area, as this is the best habitat for both migratory spawning fish, as well as resident brown and rainbow trout.
Equipment for trout is fairly straight forward, with a 5 or 6 weight rod will cover most all of your needs. For those looking to cast larger streamers of more bulky indicator setups, you may need to jump up to a 7 weight. Tippet used for dry flies will be 5 or 6x, maybe 4 & 5x for indicator rigs. Streamer lines/tippet can range from 3 or 4x for small fry patterns, to 10-12# for larger streamers.
For the conventional angler, rods in the 9-10′ length, with medium action and rated for line weight in the 6-12# range is sufficient. For those who like to use lighter weight rods, don’t go much shorter than 8′ and stick with the medium-light/medium action, with line rating now much below a 4-8# range.
Walk in access is always dictated by river levels on the Muskegon, but good access can be found below Croton dam, both above and below the Pine st ramp, as well as the water between Henning County Park and the M-37 bridge in Newaygo itself. There is other access below the bridge in Newaygo, both at Riverside Park and the Newbridge boat launch.
Capt. Jeff Bacon
Michigan Fly Fishing Ventures
(616) 560-3195
www.westmichiganflyfishing.com
