Gateway to Michigan's finest fly-fishing
April 3, 2026 Northern Angler Fishing Report
The fishing was really great this week before the big thunderstorm on Tuesday that cut our day short. Wednesday was really good, but cold and Thursday started out with freezing rain and then just a deluge of rain the entire day. The rivers
Spring is here and so are the fish.
Warmer temperatures and a bump in river levels have pushed a lot of fish up the river systems. Most of our rivers have just returned to normal levels or slightly higher than normal depending on where you are at. There is
(Carl with a massive 15 pound Muskegon River walleye)
Every early spring we normally catch some really nice walleye by mistake fishing steelhead during the spring steelhead run because walleye spawn just in front of the steelhead. But in over 30 years fishing the Muskegon river I’ve never seen one
The Manistee River below Tippy Dam is in great shape for spring. Now that the snow from the last apocalypse has almost left, we are still running a bit high at around 3000 and rising after the rain last night and today. As we mentioned in the last report, the
(Chris with a magnificent Muskegon River Steelhead)
Here’s my good friend Chris from Grand Rapids, MI with an absolute monster steelhead! Picture perfect naturally reproduced Muskegon River steelhead! Doesn’t get much better than this. Congrats Chris!
We had to pull up the anchor for this big
(Devin with a hard fighting male Steelhead)
With a 22-degree start this past Saturday morning the only way to heat up quickly is to catch an incredible Muskegon River steelhead at the break of dawn. And Catch it he did. Please meet my good friend Devin from Muskegon Michigan with
Shop Hours 8am – 6pm Daily
I had an unexpected day off today, so thought I would write a quick report to keep you updated on conditions. The weather has bounced back to “normal” late March conditions. Cooler nights and mornings, but very pleasant afternoons. They are calling for thunderstorms
The water levels on the Manistee and Betsie Rivers have been dropping after some high water which encouraged more fish to come up from Lake Michigan. Fishing has been good with egg patterns and a solid nymph bite.
So yeah… That was a doozy of a winter indeed, but certainly more normal than the 6 before it. It fell on us in late November, and save a few melts and lately a few milder days, we have had us a Real Michigan Winter. Water table did need it
March 27, 2026 Northern Angler Fishing Report
This week we have seen some great fishing on the Big Manistee River and I expect things to really get going this next week with the forecast of warmer temperatures and a more spring-like weather pattern. The snow is starting to melt and
