Oh to be home….those four words sure sum it up for me; though fishing on the Manistee River will continue to be very good for a few more weeks being back on the Muskegon River is like Thanksgiving dinner- its just makes you feel good!
Joining me for the past two days was long time guest Curtis Marsh from Dallas, Texas. Though the numbers of salmon in the Muskegon River currently are a far cry from that of the Manistee (this is always the case since the Mo’ is a later running river) fishing conditions overall are quite good. The river is flowing around 1600cfs and looks awesome. We have not had this flow of water this early in the fall with regularity in a long time. The salmon that came with the push of water a couple weeks ago are starting to gravel up while the bulk of the migration is staged in the dark stuff. Water temperature is now down to 60 degrees and seems to be falling about a degree a day. Small egg patterns fished near the spawning redds are turning chrome and gorgeous river browns. Antron stones, green caddis, and saddleback hexes are getting ate by the freshest of the kings. I was able to convince Curtis to though the 10wt with the 400gr yesterday morning early and it resulted in 5 or 6 big swats from the pooled fish without a full take. With the staged fish still very much on the take streamers should first up for those of you willing to invest the effort! Picture is Curtis with a couple great stream browns and a heavy hen king.
Capt. Steven Kuieck
