Transcript: Southwest Virginia Fishing Report with Matt Reilly
Transcript
Marvin:
[0:04] Hey folks, it's Marvin Cash, the host of the Articulate Fly, and we're back with another Southwest Virginia fishing report with Matt Riley. How you doing, Matt?
Matt:
[0:12] Doing great, Marvin. How are you?
Marvin:
[0:14] As always, just trying to stay out of trouble and stay cool.
Where do you see it on the water in your neck of the woods?
Matt:
[0:23] It is hot, first of all. definitely kind of peaking in warm weather right now.
Obviously, we'll see it through August, but probably the next week to two, three weeks are going to be the warmest of our year.
Our highs the next week or so are in the mid-80s to 90 degrees, and And water temps are peaking out.
But otherwise, everything's pretty good.
Our rivers are running pretty seasonal flows, clearing up in the places that were impacted from rain last week.
And good topwater fishing most days. and kind of where we like to be.
Marvin:
[1:20] Yeah, well, before we get to the question for you, I guess probably we've been doing this on some of the other kind of Virginia fishing reports, probably a good time to remind people not to target and fish to muskie this time of year.
Matt:
[1:34] Yeah, just about. I mean, even cold-water fish, trout are kind of in the same boat. You gotta be careful.
Watch your water temperatures. Musk, you're definitely out of the game in our warm-water rivers at the moment.
Water temps are bouncing around from upper, upper 70s to the mid to upper 80s, depending on where you are, which is a very stressful water temp for musky.
They're fairly very easy to pattern this time of year, and they do have to eat.
But the consequences of catching and fighting such a fish, this time of year is usually going to a, uh, a big old dead fish in the river, which is just not what we need.
Um, takes a long time to grow a muskie to 40, 45 inches.
And, you know, those are the fish we want to catch. So it's, uh, I don't think it should be too much to ask to leave them alone for a couple of months in the middle of the year.
Marvin:
[2:47] Yeah, there you go. And got a, uh, on a more positive note, got a question for you from Andy on small mouth and he wanted to kind of get your thoughts, you know, on kind of how you break down the decision-making process between when you fish topwater and when you fish streamers and, you know, are there flows you look for, is there structure you look for, or kind of like, how do you work through that process this time of year?
Matt:
[3:08] Yeah. Um, so yeah, assuming we're talking this time of year, you know, mid July on to end of September is kind of what I would consider to be the true bug season.
And also, I kind of go down a rabbit hole on what you mean by topwater, because within that style of fly, flies that float and fish on the surface, you have a lot of different genres.
You have your walk the dog, foam, topwater kind of flies.
You have your true poppers, Google bugs, et cetera.
You have your bugs and terrestrials, like CK topwater bugs, the wigglies that have gotten pretty popular here in the last few years.
[4:11] So, within that realm, in my mind, you kind of have two different main styles.
You have the aggressive, you know, top water.
Approach where you're actively moving, you're imitating a bait fish or a frog or something that's struggling on the surface, and then you have the more kind of passive finesse-y topwater bug type approaches.
And those fill two pretty different niches because they require the fish, they require two different things to the fish.
The more aggressive style requires fish to chase down food and eat it, and the more finessy topwater style does not.
It kind of caters to a fish's laziness, or we can call it efficiency, when water temps get really warm like they are right now, and will be for the next month or so.
Ago in the 80s where a big fish that is three to five, six pounds needs to be able to expend as little energy as possible in order to maintain body weight through that stressful time.
[5:32] So all that said, if we're fishing topwater, most days, I am...
Well, so most days, I'm gonna try to start with something on topwater.
If we have low, clear water and sun, I am very confident that we will be able to catch it on bugs throughout the day and probably most of the day, in the morning, in the evening, etc.
Where things start to change a little bit for me is with clarity and flow.
[6:13] So if we have low water that's pretty dingy, that might require a, you know, either fishing on the bottom or a more aggressive, you know, kind of, approach to the situation. And that may mean a streamer, it may mean throwing a bait fish pattern that's got a hard silhouette, it's going to show up something that's flashy, or it may mean fishing aggressively on the surface and making a lot of noise.
So you can kind of lump that more aggressive topwater genre into streamer fishing, because it really kind of is.
If watered high.
[7:07] High and just fairly not placid, where fish are living on a treadmill, that's usually gonna push me to streamer fishing, or again, kind of an aggressive topwater approach.
[7:24] I think that probably answers the question. I kind of lost myself there a little bit, but that if I can get away with...
[7:36] With topwater bug fishing all day, I usually do it.
The other side of that coin is just that if the fish aren't responding and you think they should be, if you think you're fishing fishy water and fishing well and you're not getting any reaction, then definitely switch things up.
Go subsurface, make a drastic change, go from a topwater bug to some kind of streamer or or maybe an aggressive topwater.
[8:07] And if nothing changes, then at that point, I kind of started thinking about making my bed. I think real hard about what I really think is gonna put a big fish in the boat that day based on the conditions.
And maybe it's just a slow day of fishing. And you kind of just have to commit yourself a program in that situation and have confidence in it and take what comes, you know.
If things are just not happening, in my mind, one of the worst things you can do is just kind of go through your entire fly box because what that kind of means to me is that I don't have any confidence in anything that I'm doing and, and, uh, and kind of relying on the, the fly over, you know, presentation and location and, and all of that to, to put fish in the boat.
So that's, that's my two cents on that. Yeah. I think I covered it. Okay. Yeah.
Marvin:
[9:10] I think you did. And Andy, if we didn't just hit us back up.
And I think the other thing too, right. Is it's the, you know, the advantage of having another guy in the boat, right. As you can kind of bracket it, right. can do two different things and maybe try to dial it in a little bit faster.
Matt:
[9:22] Absolutely. Yeah, given you got two guys in the boat, and then you know, you want to be thinking critical about that too. You know, if you have two guys in the boat and and the water's low and clear and...
You got a guy in the hike I told my guys today it's like you know the guy in front of the boat was you know smacking fish pretty quick right out of the gate and my guy in the back is getting you know about a half is as much love and that's that's pretty typical in the summer if it's low and clear and it's not necessarily a reflection of your flight pattern or your presentation.
It's just a reflection of the fact that you have spooky fish and technical conditions.
So if you're going to do that, think about what you're doing.
[10:19] Put something you're pretty sure is going to work in the back and something that you're wondering if it's going to work in the front.
See what happens. Flip it around. if somebody's fishing what you would expect to be the killer for the day in front and nothing's happening, and you put something on in the back and you've got summertime clear water conditions and the guy in the back of the boat smoking them, then that's a pretty good indication that that's what you need to do.
So think critically about that.
And yeah, if you got a buddy, never throw the same thing unless you're absolutely positive and you're rolling on that program.
Marvin:
[11:05] Yeah, unless you're crushing it. And you know folks that we love questions on the Articulate Fly, you can email them to us or you can DM us on social media, whatever's easiest for you. And if we use your question, I will send you some Articulate Fly swag.
We're gonna draw for something cool from Matt at the end of the season.
And Matt, before I let you go, I know where you're booking is getting deeper and deeper into this year, and then it's moving into 2024. You wanna let folks know kind of what you have available and how to get in touch and all that kind of good stuff?
Matt:
[11:32] Yeah, definitely been getting a lot of interest in, you know, October, fall, smallmouth, et cetera, and then definitely been booking a bunch of musky stuff here, here recently.
So all that's fair game. I've had some people ask about smallmouth stuff next year and I Very much trying not to, You know book everything That far in advance just because I don't want to You know, you know some of my regular folks that I've yet to fish with this year to get boxed out because I'm booking that for an advance.
So that's all to say that check the website, subscribe to the newsletter and all that stuff.
That way, when I do kind of put the word out for stuff like that, you'll know about it and you can hop on it if you want to.
But yeah, definitely looking at fall and winter time, muskie, trout, smallmouth, etc.
So, if that's your jam, let me know and we can talk about it.
All my contact info is on the website, which is mattreillyflockfishing.com, and you can reach out however you feel best.
Marvin:
[12:55] Well, there you go. So, folks, don't fish for muskie, but get out there and catch something else. Tight lines, everybody. Tight lines, Matt.
Matt:
[13:02] Thanks, Marvin.