Smallmouth fishing on our West Michigan rivers is still going strong. The season started out with a bang and the trend continues. Its been a warm summer so far, and our river temps show that. I was on the Grand River a few days ago and it was 82 deg surface temp. The Muskegon is about 10 deg cooler. The fish are liking the deeper runs and holes and are also relating to drop-offs. A variety of techniques are producing fish and can change from day to day. We are also catching some northern pike, largemouth bass and a few walleye on our charters when targeting smallmouth. Fishing should remain good into fall for smallmouth bass.

Our warmwater charters have been going well on our West Michigan rivers. The smallmouth bass bite has been good and we have also been hooking into some nice largemouths and some northern pike. We have also had a few suprise encounters with trout while fishing for warmwater species. We have encountered minimal fishing pressure on our outings. The Muskegon river has been at a good level for successful fishing. The Grand downstream of GR has been alittle high for our liking, but hopefully it will drop soon and we will be spending more time on it.

April has started out as colder than average. The result has been a somewhat slower migration of steelhead. Over the last few weeks we have been catching a mix of fresh fish, dark fish that have not spawned, and drop-back fish. We have mainly been float-fishing deeper holes and pocket water, but have also had luck backbouncing deep runs. This weekend, a winter storm has hit the Great Lakes region with rain and ice. River levels are on the rise and hopefully this will bring a push of fresh fish in from the lake. With the colder than average water temps, steelhead fishing should remain decent into May.