Muskegon River Steelhead

[solopaddler]

As many of you guys know I headed to Michigan last week for a much anticipated trip to fish the Muskegon river for steelhead.

No problem in naming this river, first off it's a pretty far drive for most of the guys that read this board, and more importantly it's a huge river that's virtually unfishable except from a driftboat.

Before leaving I called our guide to see what the water clarity was like. According to the USGS graph the river spiked up and was running at almost 5000 cubic feet per second. That's some serious water flow and it had me a bit concerned.

He says to me, "The river is high and off coloured. Whatever you're fishing with make sure it's big and bright!".

Okay, no problem. So my buddy and I tied up a huge amount of giant chartreuse and pink choker bags for the excursion thinking we were well prepared.

We arrived in the small town of Newaygo Wed afternoon, checked into our motel and slipped over for a look at Croton dam and the water clarity.

Croton is about 35 miles from lake Michigan and stops the fish migration in the river..

Here's the first sight we saw as we crossed the bridge just downstream:

 

 

Slipped down to the boat ramp for a closer look at the water. Definitely NOT off coloured!

 

 

All that tying for nothing! sigh...

 

On the plus side the river was obviously full of fish. While we watched this fellow here managed to hook one right in front of us. One of the very few spots fishable from shore on the whole river:

 

 

In any case the clear water wasn't a huge deal. We had some smaller more subtle stuff tied for Saturday when we had planned to meet up with my Michigan buddy Karl and his dad Leon and fish some smaller trib's with him about an hour north.

 

We looked around town for a decent place to eat and found this joint. You know you're in steelhead country when you see a sign like this:

 

 

Amazingly we got to bed early Wed. night and were on the road early Thursday morning to meet our driftboat guide Tim at the takeout point.

On the way over we saw dozens of turkeys. Managed to snap a quick shot of this one as he crossed the road right in front of us:

 

 

Tim had it in mind to drift an 8 mile stretch of the lower river. Sounded good to me as he said he had hit fish here the day before.

The problem was that Tim's a plug fisherman. The lower, wider stretch of river he took us to was perfectly suited to pulling plugs, but not so great for float fishing with centrepins.

It's also only his 2nd year on the river and is still learning the ins and outs..

Timmy is pretty much the only guide on the river running a true drift boat. Everyone else has these huge jet boats and are easily able to navigate pretty much anywhere they want..

Here we are at the launch getting ready to drop Tims little Clackacraft into the river:

 

 

Quick shot of Tim at the oars just after we launched and what the river looked like:

 

 

 

I'll say right up front it was a bit of a challenge fishing with Tim. He's a heckuva nice guy and tries hard to please, but he simply doesn't have the river fishing experience to be truly helpful.

It wasn't long into our drift before I started to drop some subtle hints about where we maybe should be fishing .

Tim himself was openly skeptical about the centrepins. We told him don't worry we'll get fish, but I could tell he REALLY wanted to break out the levelwind rods and the Hot 'n Tots, LOL!

 

Thursday turned out to be a bit of a challenge as the river was very much featureless and hard to read. Nevertheless we did manage a bunch of nice fish and a whole whack of resident river trout:

 

 

 

 

 

 

In one particular spot the river split around an island. The left channel was narrower but much deeper and my buddy and I both blew a fish each.

At the end of the island there was a gorgeous seam on the right side with water shallow enough to wade.

I quickly hopped out and started working the water:

 

 

Not too long after I managed to hit another beautiful chrome fish!

 

 

One of the biggest hindrances to our fishing was that Tims kicker motor was non functioning as he didn't have a shear pin in it.

It made it impossible to zip back upstream to re-fish some of the better water. Many times we'd hook a fish and have to follow it in the boat in order to land it..ahh well we dealt with it...

 

Tim did barbeque us up a nice lunch though, right in the boat:

 

 

Here's a bit more fish porn from the day:

 

 

 

 

 

Late in the day it started absolutely TEAMING down rain. From that point on it basically didn't stop 'till Friday morning .

Talking with Tim about the next day he wanted to fish the same stretch of water on Friday.

I suggested we launch at the dam and drift the 8 miles down to Thornapple where we put in in Thursday.

The river would be slightly narrower, a bit more intimate and easier to read, plus being closer to dam the fish would be more concentrated.

The kicker was all the rain. I explained to him that it would push a bunch of fish upstream..

He reluctantly agreed and promised he'd have a shear pin for the motor on Friday as we parted ways for the day.

As mentioned it RAINED Thursday night. Absolutely incredible amounts of water coming down so heavy it was like sheets....just unreal!

 

As we met at the boat launch at the dam it was obvious the river was MUCH higher. Almost torrential in fact, BUT the visibility was still good.

Fish were rolling around in the seam near the launch, we were pumped!

We quickly loaded the drift boat and pushed off. As we eased downstream I asked Tim "hey bud, how about we put the motor down and zip up to the bridge abutment for a few minutes?" There was a HUGE back eddy behind the abutment that just had to be loaded with fish.

No problem says Tim. He drops the motor, starts it up then he instantly starts cursing. Apparantly the shear pin he carved out of a chunk of pencil lead wasn't strong enough! Who knew? HAHAHA! (oh brother )

 

Anywaaay we began our drift downstream with our hopes still very high. The guys in Michigan for some unknown and bizzare reason enjoy anchoring right next to each other on the shallow spawning gravel flats and sight "fishing" for steelhead.

They like to employ a method of angling called "chuck 'n duck", (Thankfully unique to Michigan). They'll use a fly rod and fly reel loaded with fly line. A large amount of split shot or more typically pencil lead on their tippet and an egg pattern of some kind.

They don't actually "cast" these monstrous rigs, more like heaving it out there...

Needless to say most of their fish are lined...Ah well, each to their own.

Here's a group of avid chuck 'n duckers feverishly working the gravel flats as we drifted by:

 

 

We slipped past them and I says to Tim, "pull in along the shoreline to the left there". There was a sweet little current break and a beautiful well defined seam about 100yds long. I hopped out to work it on foot, Andrew stayed in the boat.

We both caught fish.

Between the 2 of us easily 30 fish were hooked. Each and every one a loong epic battle with lots of scorching runs out into the main current. They were HARD to hold and a lot of fish were lost.

We were pretty happy, Tim, well he was ECSTATIC!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Had to get at least one net shot

 

 

 

 

 

We lay an absolute beating on them!

Cool thing was Tim was amazed at our success and began to pepper me with questions. He was pretty much sold.

I promised him if he wanted we'd fish from shore at the dam for a bit and give him a quick casting lesson where there was lots of room to flail around.

 

Once again not having a motor hugely hampered us and we were forced to drift the stretch of river much faster than I would have liked.

Lower down it broadened out and looked a lot like our Nottawasaga in Ontario:

 

 

Andrew managed to connect with one more ferocious chrome bright hen that had Tim paddling madly downstream to keep up. Finally pulled the hook after a long drawn out battle..

 

Shortly after that we pulled the boat out and motored over to the dam.

 

Here's Timmy fishing with a centrepin reel for the first time:

 

 

Amazingly he DID catch on pretty quick and actually managed to hook and almost land a pretty decent sized walleye.

Pretty much made his day complete, he was a very happy man.

I managed to poke one more small hen steelhead. Not a giant fish, but it took off like a rocket and had me stumbling downstream in deep dangerous water following it.

Finally managed to subdue the fish in the boat lanch, (perfect spot to beach fish):

 

 

 

Before the end of our little session there I managed one gorgeous walleye and even figured out the underwater mode on the camera and managed a decent pic:

 

 

 

That was it! Just an outstanding day. What topped it was Timmy being completely sold on the long float rod and centrepin reel.

Told me he's heading over to Cabela's on Sunday to buy his own .

 

As mentioned we were "supposed" to fish a couple of smaller systems on Saturday with my friends Karl and Leon.

I thought I'd better give Karl a quick shout before we hit the hwy north to Cadillac.

Good thing I did! Everything up there is blown beyond belief from the heavy rains of the night before.

Our trip was over .

No matter though, it was plenty good enough!

We had a choice of either leaving for home immediately (around 5pm), or grab a motel and leave in the morning.

We were both still feeling pretty good so decided to get out of Dodge. In retrospect we should have stayed. Shortly after hitting the hwy the monsoon rains started again and didn't stop for the entire drive home:

 

 

What a brutal drive! We made it, but I doubt I'll ever pull a marathon like that again I'm getting way too old.

 

All around great trip though, it waay exceeded my expectations which doesn't happen all that often.

Can't wait to get back!

 

 

Cheers, Mike

Edited April 13, 2008 by solopaddler

[wuchikubo]

Another great report Mike! It's always a good to see your posts but I feel sorry for those without high speed internet with all your fish porn pics up LOL!

 

Too bad the weather didn't hold up for one more day for ya but you did get into some great fishing!

[johnnyb]

That is one heck of a report...and a really memorable trip! way to go, and thanks for sharing

[MJL]

That report was simply AMAZING! Beauty pics to boot.

 

The Muskegon is certainly a much larger river than the ones I've fished most of my life. No doubt a challenge finding features.

 

If you don't mind me asking, how much would a float trip like that cost? Shoot me a PM if you'd like. School ends for me this Wednesday and I'm sure it would make a pretty sweet graduation present - HINT HINT DAD

[kickingfrog]

Much enjoyed, thanks.

[solopaddler]

That report was simply AMAZING! Beauty pics to boot.

 

The Muskegon is certainly a much larger river than the ones I've fished most of my life. No doubt a challenge finding features.

 

If you don't mind me asking, how much would a float trip like that cost? Shoot me a PM if you'd like. School ends for me this Wednesday and I'm sure it would make a pretty sweet graduation present - HINT HINT DAD

 

No problem, the trip was actually dirt cheap, hence the reason I went .

Normally a guide on that river will charge $400 for a full day with 2 guys.

Tim's just starting out and is waaay undergunned boat wise compared to the rest of the guides so in order to compete he's waaay underpriced .

His rate is $100 a day for 2 guys (50 bucks a day each). Can't beat the price even considering his relative inexperience.

As mentioned he's a super nice guy and you're still getting down the river and are able to fish it..

Shoot me a pm if you want his phone number.

[irishfield]

Hey Mike... you got anymore pictures. I found that post pretty lacking! LOL

 

Great stuff bud !

[jonnybass]

That is THE best report I've ever had the pleasure of reading!

 

Thanks for sharing that!

 

Too bad you got a rookie guide, but it sounds like it didn't matter much! You guys took him to school!

[steverowbotham]

Awesome!

[canadian_copper]

AWSOME REPORT DUDE!!!

I AM ENVIOUS OF ALL THE PLACES YOU GET TO TRAVEL TOO!!!

YOU MUST NOT BE MARRIED LOL

[snagmaster]

sweet report man...looks like you had a blast

[PickerelHunter]

WOW, awesome report. The pics are gorgeous and the river looks really good. Thanks for sharing

[The Urban Fisherman]

Absolutely amazing Solo! As usual! Awesome photos and a great read to boot.

 

Thanks for the report!

[Gerritt]

Wicked report! thank you for sharing

 

G

[Victor]

must have been a fun trip.

great to be on a new river and avoid all the crowds, thanks for sharing!

[solopaddler]

AWSOME REPORT DUDE!!!

I AM ENVIOUS OF ALL THE PLACES YOU GET TO TRAVEL TOO!!!

YOU MUST NOT BE MARRIED LOL

 

Nope, married with a 4 year old daughter and 11/2 year old son .

 

(I don't get out anywhere near as much as I used to though)

[Smokey]

Great report Mike. Congrats

[JEREMY]

The only thing i can say is wow.

Edited April 12, 2008 by JEREMY

[Minnow]

What a report just amazing! Great fish Congrats!

[fatherof3]

great report and pics,congrats on the trip

[jdmls]

absolutely amazing man !!! I still can't forget the road trip post you put up at about this time last year when you guys did so well down in the states...This is clearly a top candidate for the OFC steelhead post of the year !!!

[Harv]

Looks like you had a pretty stellar day on the Muskegeon there Mike. Last Wednesday we ventured over to a river a little north of that and had a pretty decent day ourselves. We did not have the benefits of a boat but we did a little legwork and were rewarded with some fresh chrome.

 

Great deal you found on the guide - there are a lot of drift boats over there as it really is the best way to cover much of that water.

 

Timing is everything and I think last week was Michigan's first real big push of fish this Spring.

 

Fails miserably in comparison to your photo gallery, but here is some of what we found.

 

 

 

 

 

Harv

[medmart]

That was an awesome report and i enjoyed all those pictures thanks for sharing

 

Rob

[Moosebunk]

Great show Mike. Some super bows in that report. Looks like a road trip may be in the future.

 

That's not the camera you usually use is it???

[solopaddler]

Looks like you had a pretty stellar day on the Muskegeon there Mike. Last Wednesday we ventured over to a river a little north of that and had a pretty decent day ourselves. We did not have the benefits of a boat but we did a little legwork and were rewarded with some fresh chrome.

 

Great deal you found on the guide - there are a lot of drift boats over there as it really is the best way to cover much of that water.

 

Timing is everything and I think last week was Michigan's first real big push of fish this Spring.

 

Fails miserably in comparison to your photo gallery, but here is some of what we found.

 

 

 

 

 

Harv

 

Hey bud, just heard from Dave a little while ago sounds like you and Brian did just fine, some nice fish there!

We were going to fish up there on Saturday, but as mentioned she blew out. Your timing was immpecable .

 

Cheers