It was an extremely cold day today, and I left the house thinking that I would go out to the Muskegon River and do some steelhead fishing. I covered myself with multiple layers, becoming a human onion in a pair of waders. Unfortunately, my truck battery was dead, and by the time I arrived at the river, it was 2pm. Steelhead bring out anglers in even the harshest of conditions, and I was surprised to find anglers from as far away as Idaho fishing out of the boat launch at Pine street, despite air temperatures of 11 degrees.
The Muskegon River is a fantastic fishing resource, and the steelhead we have are at the heart of the fishery. In the dead of winter, steel-head will take a fly or lure readily, and their numbers increase through the winter months in West Michigan streams.
Despite a few challenges to the resource, it is a prime destination for anyone with the itch to fish during the winter months. Steelhead begin to course into the Muskegon in late September and through the fall months. These fish remain in the river through the winter months, with new fish trickling in any time we have snowmelt or a weather event. During the fall, when water temperatures are warm, steelhead will move a long ways to eat a fly, lure or bait.
However, during the short cold days of winter, their reaction time slows. The net result is that you will need to present your offering slow-ly in order to give the fish the chance to eat. For some anglers, this means presenting an egg un-der a float, or slowly rolling a fly or bait along the bottom.
My favorite tactic during these cold pe-riods is to use flies that look like resident baitfish. Because this river system is so fertile, it has a huge and very diverse baitfish population. Steelhead will prey on any number of these food sources. Their versatility is one of the key things to understand about steelhead. This feature is what keeps their numbers healthy when baitfish populations rise and fall in Lake Michigan.
