November Fishing Forecast – West Michigan

What’s the only job you can get wrong 90% of the time and still stay employed? The weatherman. I swear they’re always wrong… Regardless, us guides have to figure it out too.

It’s hard to beat fly fishing under the colors of a Michigan Autumn

As everyone knows, we’ve been dealing with drought conditions across West Michigan for quite a while now. Most of our rivers are running well below average flows, and the forecast doesn’t show much relief over the next ten days—at least not according to our ever-optimistic weather experts.

Autumn is my favorite time of year to be on the water fly fishing.

Even so, we’re right in the heart of one of my favorite times of the year to fish. While many are in the woods chasing whitetails, I’m out on the water chasing fins.

Big northern pike are on the prowl getting ready for cooler weather.

Autumn is prime time for targeting big predators like pike and musky. Steelhead have also joined the program, showing up in solid numbers now that the salmon have finished their annual chaos. And of course, brown trout deserve a mention—this is streamer season, and few things match the thrill of watching a big brown crush a fly in cold, clear fall water.

Brown trout are always a welcome catch, especially on the streamer

In the spirit of the weatherman, here’s my forecast for the rest of November: with a little rain expected this weekend and a slight bump in river levels, fishing should be fantastic. The extra flow will bring more steelhead into the system, and the pike and musky will be feeding aggressively before winter’s chill slows things down.

Steelhead fishing is about to get fun!

Stay tuned to see if my predictions pan out—or better yet, drop me a line and come find out for yourself.

Cheers,