Grand River Fishing Report

With above freezing temperatures for most of December the area rivers have opened up to fishing. Over the past few weeks steelhead fishing has been decent.  Here is the Grand River Fishing Report as of January 1, 2020.


A few fish have been hooked and landed throughout the day. We’ve been catching a mixed bag of dark hold-over steelhead with fresh chrome.

We continue to use beads but have been mixing it up with spawn for the best action.  Try running nickel to quarter size bags with pink and chartreuse netting. As far as beads go, try the more pale and milked out colors to entice the fish. Mottled peachy king and peach fuzz in 8 and 10 millimeters have been working best.

Water temps have been between 32-34 degrees. We’ve been targeting slightly deeper and slower runs where the fish will lay this time of year. Rain, wind, sleet and snow, it’s all in the future forecast,which will hopefully bring in new fish before it gets too cold to river fish. 

On the flip side, colder temps in the future will help with our ice growth. As of now, very few if any of the area lakes have ice. Because of that, we have moved our ice trips into February.  

While the rivers are open, get out and enjoy some steelhead fishing before the the ice takes over, or start thinking of spending the day on the hard water and give us call to book a trip in February.

Grand River Fishing Report

Condition Of The Grand River

The Grand River, in downtown Grand Rapids, is starting to see the beginning of the fall steelhead run and is in great shape. Right now the river is flowing at 5,000 cfs with a water temp in the upper 40’s to low 50’s depending on the day. With the recent rain and cold coming, this will only drive more steelhead into the system.

Steelhead Update:

The steelhead that are coming in are dime bright and fresh from Lake Michigan. The majority of the fish are moving up the river and on into the tributaries. They are not holding as of yet. With that said, we are fishing the choke points and tradition zones to get on them versus the deeper winter holes.

These early steelhead pack a punch and as we’ve said before, they can move at speeds of up to 26 feet per second. As a result of this, we are using 12 lbs mono main line to 12 lbs leader. Anything less and you’ll lose them. Anything more and they’ll shy away as a result of seeing the leader. We been using 10 mm and 8 mm beads with number #4 wide gap hooks. Try using Mottledbeads in Glow Roe and Peach Roe. The water is somewhat stained so If you’re going to run two beads, add a Chartreuse to get their attention.

If you want to hook into these silver bullets under the skyscrapers of downtown Grand Rapids the rest of October, November and into the first part of December are a great time to fish. So give us call today.

Captain Tom Werkman