Winter Steelhead

Muskegon River levels are very low and clear!!!  Water temp is in the low 30's and shelf ice is present atleast in the mid to lower stretches of river.  Bites come very quickly some days and other days you need to work each spot a bit harder to produce hookups.  Look for fish in classic winter lies including soft water and spots with structure.  Pictured below is good friend Dan and myself with the results of a couple hours of play time this afternoon.

12/17/2010  Dan with a jumping hen in 33 degree water!!

12/17/2010  Myself with a heavy buck that put up a great battle. 

12/17/2010  A nice fat winter hen.

Float fishing for Muskegon River Steelhead

Ed is pictured below with a few nice centerpin caught Steelhead from this morning's half day trip.

12/11/2010  Floatfishing was good this morning.

12/11/2010  A cookie cutter hen

36 degree water temp and this fish still jumped twice!!

12/11/2010  Chrome hen from early this morning.

Winter Steelhead Fishing

Winter has finally arrived, there is snow on the ground and all the "prime time" fishermen are gone!!  The water is up and at a very nice level with just enough color for now, water temp today was 39 to 40 deg.  Depth was the ticket today, most days lately fishing close to the lumber was where it happened but today find the magic depth and it was game on!  Had a fantastic half day trip with Ed this morning, we had the river to ourselves and the fish were on the bite better than I have seen in the last 2 weeks!  We are offering our normal reduced winter rates from Dec. 1 to Feb. 28 $300 full day and $200 half day, half days can be morning or afternoon depending on your preference and schedule.

12/2  This fish put on an aerial show for us.

12/2  Nice buck.

12/2  Muskegon River Winter Steelhead.

12/2  Ed with a nice hen from the Muskegon River.

Feels like Winter Steelheading

11/28  The camera could not capture the brilliant colors on this buck Steelhead.

11/28  John with an early morning Buck

11/28 

11/28  John with a nice hen.

Thanksgiving Day Feast!!

Ed and John have plenty to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. The Steelhead were on the bite and we had the river completely to ourselves!!  We packed it in at noon to go spend time with family and of course eat too much.  Hope everyone had a safe and happy Thanksgiving.

11/25  John with the big fish of the day 9.5 lbs.

11/25  These fish were all over the river today!!

11/25  John with another thick hen Steelhead.

11/25  Ed strikes early with a nice hen.

 

Happy Thanksgiving

What a turn in weather, 2 days ago it was 60 degrees then yesterday and today were quite cold.  Had a cancellation yesterday so I took a friend Tyler from Maryland out swinging flies and we were pleasantly suprised at the number of Steelhead that were willing to violently attack our flies!!  It was completely opposite of the number that were willing to come to the net but was still the most fun time I have spent on the river fishing for myself in quite some time.  The bite today was the best it has been in a while despite heavier boat traffic being the day before Thanksgiving.  The rain brought the river up slightly and shuffled the fish around a bit which helped.  Ray and his two sons Colin and Jacob are pictured below with a few from this morning, the cold forced us off the river at 12:30.

 Happy Thanksgiving to all and be safe, I will be on the water tomorrow morning then eating turkey in the afternoon.

11/24  Colin with a nice buck Steelhead.

11/24  Ray with one of his fish from this morning.

11/24  This fish hit like a freight train and was out of the water as much as it was in.

11/24  The masked man strikes again.

11/24  Jacob with a chrome hen that was all over the river.

Warm November Rain

We recieved some much needed rain today, let's just hope it turns out to be enough to make a difference.  Look for a good shot of fish to charge up river if the water rises enough, December could be great!!  Stay tuned and we will see what happens.

11/22  Greg with a hen that smashed a plug.

11/22  Steve with a hefty Steelhead.

11/22  Steve with a beauty of a hen.

Fall Steelhead

11/21  Ryder with his first Steelhead from this Morning 9lbs.!!!

11/21  Ryder with a chrome Steelhead.

Michigan Steelhead Fishing

11/20  Alex showing off a nice hen.

11/20  Bill with a great Steelhead from this evening.

Steelhead fishing is fair considering the conditions,  extremely low clear water and fish being pressured daily.  We could really use some rain to bring the water up and a new batch of fish from Lake Michigan as most of the fish here right now are fairly educated.  We mixed things up a bit today deciding to pull plugs thinking the fish are getting tired of spawn bags bouncing off their noses and it worked pretty well. 

11/19  Joe with a nice hen caught at the end of the day.

11/19  Dave with a buck that crushed a plug!

  

Back to reality



11/18  We had a heck of a time bringing fish to the net today but had a fair number of hookups.



11/18  Fishing is growing slightly more challenging each day.

Muskegon River Steelhead Fishing

We have worked hard for our fish the last couple days but by day's end the numbers add up to good fishing.  Water is LOW and CLEAR making things a bit tougher than a week ago but the fish are there and persistence pays off.  We had a heck of a hail storm on the river right after lunch today and hooked the biggest fish of the day right in the middle of it, of course it broke off after a few good jumps and a good hard run.  Some rain and colored water would really kick things back into high gear.


11/17  Hank with his first ever Steelhead, congrats!!

11/17  Jack with a hefty hen Steelhead.

11/16  Ed with an early morning Steelhead.

Opening day bucks!!

Had a great half day of Steelhead fishing with Ed and Fritz today.  What a nice change of pace with the firearm deer opener today there were absolutely no boats in the section we fished!!  The fish came at a steady pace most of the morning with a few runs mixed in that produced hot and heavy action.  After the solitude we enjoyed today I sure hope nobody shot a deer so they can hunt again tomorrow and we can have the river to ourselves again!!

For those of you wondering why the pictures are not changing on my homepage, http://www.muskegonriverguide.com/, my computer crashed last week and I found out the hard drive is shot so I lost everything from the last 3 years including pictures which were not backed up.  I also have to completely rebuild the site because the software I use does not allow me to download the site off the internet, so for now any and all updates will be here at http://www.muskegonriverguide.blogspot.com/

See you on the river,

Jeff

11/15  We thought this buck was much bigger the way it stayed deep and made long runs

11/15  A nice buck on the opener.

11/15  Fritz with his first opening day buck.

11/15  Ed with a feisty buck that tried to bury himself in the timber.

   

Young people Steelhead Fishing

11/13  These 3 kids did a great job today all landing their first Steelhead!!

11/13  Shawn with his first ever Steelhead

11/13  This fish would not give up.

11/13  Phyllis with a nice buck Steelhead

11/13  Shawn with a good buck Steelhead

11/13  Young Gerald with a nice buck.

11/12  The first fish of the morning

11/12  There is nothing like Fall Steelhead.

11/12  Steelhead fishing has been great!

11/12  Jim with a nice plump Steelhead