Grand River Fishing Report Archives

Time To Play The Game

The smallmouth game is on and the pre-spawn is going strong. We’re quickly switching gears from steelhead to running all out smallmouth trips.

Spring Is Here And So Are The……

Spring is definitely here are so are the steelhead, the smallmouth and the pike.

With recent warm up’s in temperatures and the ice finally draining from our rivers brings lots of eagerness to hit the river. With lower returns of fish this past fall seeing spring on the horizon bring lots of hope for new and more fish in our systems. During recent outings to the river, water temperatures are still on the cold size. Temps have been around the 33 – 35 degree mark due to all the run off from snow melt. This brought the rivers up and put a great stain to the river. Tailwater fisheries and small river have been fishable but the big water on the Grand had been too high to fish, exceeding 15,000 CFS. Some new fish have shown up with these bump in flows, but mostly just “shuffled” fish around system. Still a mostly winter hold-over fish.

While fishing in cooler water temps, lighter tippet and leaders are still necessary. Stained or off-color water we have been bumping up to slightly heavier leaders. On the terminal end, eggs and nymphs and been most productive. Yellows and dulled-out orange colors have been best. Generic nymphs such as stone flies, caddis, and prince nymphs have also been productive. Colder water temps and higher water have made swinging tough. Fishing intermediate heads and heavy sink tips will be go too. Generally in cold water smaller flies are slightly more productive, but in off-colored water try bumping the sizes up to compensate for clarity.

Our 10 day forecast show some of sun and temps in the low 40s. Fishing should become more productive once we see water temperatures reach the high 30s into 40s.

Captain Max Werkman

Warmer Than Normal

It seems like the pattern continues with warmer than normal temps and below average precipitation. This is caused somewhat of a mixed bag for fall steelhead run. The main reason, the rivers are colder than Lake Michigan, so there’s really no reason for the steelhead to come.

Out With The Old, In With The New

Salmon are on the tail end or their annual migration up the river to spawn. There are still a few fish scattered throughout the system but it’s slim pickings for fish that are still in decent shape. With the cooler temps and a bump in flows from the rain we are starting to see fishable numbers of steelhead in the system. These fish are bright and full of fight and even the small ones are a blast to catch!

Grand River Steelhead Video

Being that a lot of these fish are still on the move, transition water has been the main focus. Float fishing and swinging flies have been our methods of choice for the fish. The water has a slight stain currently so brighter colors have been a little more productive.

When float fishing we prefer to float a smaller more natural single egg pattern this time of year with the abundance of salmon eggs still in the system, eggs are an easy meal for a fish to grab as they drift by. Lighter orange and white 8mm and 10mm beads have been our color of choice if asked to pick a color.

Swinging flies is another productive method this time of year. With water temps still on the warmer side and fish being located in the narrow chutes and runs of transition water these fish will more eagerly chase down a swung fly. Flies with a bit of bulk flash in them seem to be the ticket right now. In the more stained water we have started to incorporate rattle chambers into the flies to help the fish locate them and have had great success. (Tying Video up soon)

As we move through the month of November the steelhead fishing is only going to get better with the cooler temps and rain that are in the forecast. Things are setting up to be a fantastic fall run. Feel free to drop us a line if you have any questions or just want to talk fishing. We do have a few days open for trips, but open days are going fast.

Capt. Matt Ketter

Fall Transitions

Smallmouth is still going strong and kings are slowly showing up.

Summer Patterns

The Grand River is in great fishing condition after we received the much needed rain earlier this month and flows returned to their normal summertime levels. Here’s the latest from the frontlines.