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Family fishing fun...
Lake Michigan excursions from Muskegon offer some of the best fishing the Lake has to offer. Read about species and habits of our native game fish...


brownBrown Trout

In the Great Lakes, and Michigan fishing for brown trout are near-shore fish and are taken by shallow water trolling, surf casting or pier fishing. Usually brown trout in the Great Lakes are plumper than their inland lake a nd stream counterparts (similar to football shape) because of the super abundance of forage in the Great Lakes.


CohoCoho Salmon
In spring and summer, coho can be found in open waters near concentrations of alewives or smelt - usually within 10 miles of shore in the upper 20 to 40 feet. In August and September, they concentrate in schools near mouths of the parent streams. Sometime in September, they begin ascending the spawning streams in waves.


King SalmonChinook (King Salmon)
Open-water fishing is the best in spring and summer, as with coho. Migration to parent streams begin in late ummer, with heavy concentration at stream mouths. Stream fishing peaks sometime in September, at the onset of spawning runs.  Chinook Salmon do not jump and roll as much as coho, but have tremendous power and make long reel-screaming runs.


LAke TroutLake Trout
Pre-eminently a deep-water and cold-water fish. In spring and during fall spawning season, when water is still very cold, lake trout may be taken in lake edge shallows. They too will run up rivers in the fall, and become quite accessible to anglers below the large dams which block and concentrate the runs. Summer and winter, they are taken by trolling and still fishing or "bobbing" in 50 to 200 feet of water. Large inland lakes near the Great Lakes are also likely sites. Some large lakes, well inland, maintain populations


SteelheadSteelhead
Steelhead spawn in the spring, as early as March, but they begin entering the spawning streams as early as the preceding September. A recently introduced summer-run strain of steelhead may enter the streams in mid-summer. Special early and late seasons are held to take advantage of these runs. Stream fishing is prime in October, November, March and April. In late spring and summer, steelhead can be found in big water - usually within a mile of shore at depths of less than 50 feet.

atlantic salmonAtlantic Salmon
Each year there are about 20,000 Atlantic salmon released into the St. Marys River in late May. The fish have been taken in Lake Huron and Lake Michigan. In the 70s Michigan planted some 20,000 young Atlantic salmon in the AuSable River. Atlantic salmon, (land locked) are long jumpers. Whereas steelhead go skyward, they porpoise like a whale.

 

 

 

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