Transcript: Central VA Fishing Report with TaleTellers Fly Shop
S5, Ep 120: Central Virginia Fishing Report with TaleTellers Fly Shop
2023
http://www.thearticulatefly.com
Transcript
Marvin:
[0:04] Hey folks, it's Marvin Cash, the host of the Articulate Fly, and we're back with another Central Virginia Fishery Report with Ethan Martin at Telltale's Fly Shop. How you doing, Ethan?
Ethan:
[0:13] I'm doing great today. How are you doing?
Marvin:
[0:15] I'm doing the rain dance, brother. How about you?
Ethan:
[0:18] Just about the same.
Marvin:
[0:20] On one side, I really, we need rain for the fish, but I've been working, helping build my dad's house and so it is kind of nice that every single day is beautiful 70 degrees or 80 degrees and dry but we need rain you know from a fishing perspective we are there yeah so we were talking before we started recording on the trout front that like you know temperatures are fine but you know and they are stocking which is probably more a function of the temperature than the water but you might want to kind of maybe give it an extra second thought before you go out and fish for them, just from what it's going to do to the fish and maybe you want to give them a little bit of rain so they can kind of spread out a little bit more.
Ethan:
[1:05] Yeah, I mean it's just so low. If you go into any of like the stream data reports, which I was doing, just playing around with it even before we just called, and if you click on like one year of data, you can see where we're at now is even lower than one year ago, and most of our local streams.
So, you know, seasonably, like in the fall, we always typically start going low, but this year, I mean, we just haven't had the rain from the past years.
So, which can create a problem, especially like as we get into brook trout spawn, and then as leaves drop, you know, there can be some problems that happen there.
Not really anything we can do to change it, you know, it's just other than hopeful rain.
But yeah, that is on the horizon if we don't don't get some.
Marvin:
[1:48] Yeah, and so I guess you know just to kind of help folks out if you decide to go out you know longer leader, skinnier leader, stealthier tactics, you know you might want to leave the thingamabobber at home and maybe use a tuft of yarn or maybe a dry dropper because you're gonna get busted pretty quick with the water conditions.
Ethan:
[2:06] You have to use my favorite little New Zealand strike indicator thing.
That thing is the bomb, especially for conditions like right now.
If you are going trout fishing, because to your point, they have started stocking a couple of local streams. They even stock some today that are not too far from the shop.
[2:24] Most of those fish are going to be put in the deepest holes that they can find, so you don't have to waste a bunch of time sitting there going through super shallow stuff.
Stuff. But then just keep in mind that that's also going to put additional pressure if there are other anglers out. You guys are all going to be looking for the same deep holes.
[2:45] So you just be prepared. If you go out, you're probably going to see other people and you're probably going to get right up beside them in order to catch fish if that's what you're after.
If that's not what you're after, then the James is still fishing pretty decent.
People are still catching stuff on poppers.
It's not going to blow your mind from everybody that I've talked to, but those cicadas have started dropping, so definitely still some topwater action is out there.
Some pretty big smallmouth have been caught in the past week or two, so maybe not as many fish since it is so low.
Just another point to put in there is if you've got a hard drift boat or a super heavy raft, The James is pretty low right now, we're like sitting, you know, one of the gauges that I look at a lot, it's about two foot of water, which is super low.
So if you have like a hard drift boat, or if you're thinking, hey, let me get my jet boat or whatever it is, you just got to be real careful.
And you might be on the water a lot longer than you expect, just because of how slow things are moving.
So just keep that in mind if you're making plans for this weekend.
Marvin:
[3:58] Yeah, also from a stealth perspective, you know, fish generally don't groove on here in a drift boat grinding on rocks, right? No.
Ethan:
[4:06] And then, you know, when you get home and you have to put a new gel coat on everything, that's never a fun activity, so. Yeah.
Marvin:
[4:13] You know, although I would say maybe in these conditions with the clear water, you might want to try to get that impulse bite with a bait fish pattern, right? And that might get a fish to make a mistake that they wouldn't make, you know, watching a bug drift forever in the current and in the low water.
Ethan:
[4:29] Yep. Yeah. Streamers are always a good time. You know, like this time of the year, you throw in a white bait fish pattern. I do like throwing that.
You know, typically you're going to catch some of your biggest fish on poppers.
But if you do want to just go out and try and catch numbers, or like, if you just want to go win weight fish in downtown or any of the sections on the James where you can wait, thrown a streamer this time of the year, it's pretty fun because you can see the streamer. so clear.
And then all of a sudden you see fish appear or you just see the streamer disappear.
So that can be exciting too, especially if you don't have a boat or you just want to get out real quick and wait.
So I know quite a few people have been downtown and had pretty good success.
So definitely you still have options to fish. And you know what?
Hunting season is here and only increasing the next month or two.
And so there's less people out the water. That's the way it always goes in the fall.
So, if you don't want to see a ton of people on the water from that perspective, especially on like our smallmouth rivers, then that's totally worth it.
The trout streams, when they stock them, people are always going to flock to that.
But, you know, all those other places that don't get that same pressure from that people group, you know, you usually have the water for yourself, which is pretty nice.
Marvin:
[5:50] Yeah, particularly if you fish when UVA or Virginia Tech are playing, right?
Ethan:
[5:54] Yeah, or Liberty or any of the ones here in Lynchburg, too.
Marvin:
[5:57] Yeah. And so, you know, and it's, you know, pumpkin spice latte time.
So everyone's losing their mind thinking about musky season.
But you were telling me before we started recording that it's a little, a little early on the musky bite front.
Ethan:
[6:09] Yeah, I know a couple people have been out for them. You know, they've seen them because, again, the water is so clear, but it's not one of the things where you're going to go out and catch a ton of them.
So if you want to see fish, this is a decent time to see them.
Just know that it's going to really annoy you because you're probably going to see more than what you typically would.
And because fish are always going to be... When you're throwing baits that large, they're going to come and...
And I say baits, but flies that large, they're going to come and inspect and see what it is.
They're just not always going to eat. And springtime when you're doing that, you don't even see that fish because the water's up or it's off color.
But this time time of the year when you're doing that sort of stuff, you can see that fish, you know, he comes and he's trying to figure out what's going on.
So maybe you'll get a little bit more like heart racing out of it, but you still might not catch a ton of muskies.
So that's just musky vision.
Marvin:
[7:03] There you go. And we've got a question from good old faithful Brenner.
And it's a small mouth question. He wanted to get your thoughts on kind of how late into the fall do the small mouth stay active and if there's some kind of magic water temperature number that he you should be thinking about.
Ethan:
[7:20] Not really.
Most of the time, when stuff really starts to slow down is when it starts getting really cold.
I don't know in our area as much if I've ever seen a magic water number for when everything just shuts down, unless it's like 33 degrees and we're talking actual winter fishing.
But for the fall, it's pretty much going to be... If you go out and the water temps are pretty decent.
I mean, throw either topwater until we start getting consecutive really hard frosts. And that usually is going to die off completely because there's just not a ton of activity on the surface.
And in that case, I would just switch over to throw in more streamers.
And if you are wade fishing, like I know he does, that's what I would do is if you start getting where days are just a little bit slower, it's just throw on a streamer and keep slinging it out there.
So, you know, any of these people who don't have boats and they're aspiring doctors like him, when you get free time, you know, you just, you got to use it by fishing and it doesn't to me, I don't really care what the temperature is if I'm going to go fishing, I'm going to go.
So that's kind of like a stupid answer because I didn't really answer it at all. All I said was go and fish and have fun.
And That's pretty much my thoughts behind it, so yeah, there you go.
Marvin:
[8:47] Yeah, I mean, I guess the only thing I would kind of throw on that is, to me, it's kind of a question of how do you want to fish, right?
And so, as long as you understand that November fishing is not June or July fishing is not February fishing, right, then it's game on, and I mean, because basically, Schultzie and Blaine and all these guys have basically dialed it in and they can catch them 12 months out of the year.
It's just a question of, you know, finding them and knowing where they are, patterning them. It's just like fishing for musky and then getting them to eat. 100%.
Ethan:
[9:21] You got to put time in and that's, that's the hardest part is trying to figure out the different seasons and then the transitions between the seasons, because, you know, the fish are most of the time, if the meal comes in front of them, they're going to eat it.
It's just a matter of you figuring out when that time is and where that fish is.
Marvin:
[9:41] Yeah, absolutely. And you know, folks, we love questions on the articulate fly.
You can email them to us. 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.
Marina, we're drawing for some cool stuff from the shop at the end of the season.
Ethan, before I let you go, you want to let folks know, hours, shop location, special classes, any of that kind of cool stuff?
Ethan:
[10:02] You, So we're located in downtown Lynchburg, Virginia. Our hours have shifted a bit.
We're open a little bit later. We're open until six o'clock now.
So you can keep that in mind if you are local and you're trying to get here after work.
Then we do have a couple of classes coming up. If you look on our website calendar, you can see all of the classes that we have upcoming.
The main ones for this week is that we have a fly-tying class on Thursday, And then we have a casting clinic with Alex Collier.
And that is on Saturday. I think there's one spot left as of right now.
[10:41] So that class does cost. So if you're interested in that, look on the website.
There's a little RSVP that'll allow us to get your information.
But we're going to start doing a couple more of those. I mean, this is a really great time for getting some of those classes in because the river is low.
And there's not a ton of people out there. So it's super easy to get really good instruction.
And we've got a couple more classes lined up with some really good instructors.
So I'm excited. I know people will like it when I teach and I like teaching too.
But we've got a couple of good guides and people in our area that I think are going to only add extra benefit and give people a couple more spices of teaching styles.
So another one of those guides coming up is going gonna be Mike Rennie.
He's teaching a class on all-season smallmouth fishing. I think that's what it is, but just to confirm, if somebody wants to keep me honest, it's on our website again, and you click on it, and it's gonna give you all that information.
So, a lot of stuff is kicking off, so I'm excited.
Marvin:
[11:47] Yeah, well there you go, and you know folks, fall is my favorite time of the year to be on the water, and yo it to yourself to get out there and catch a few. Remember, do it during Saturday college football and you'll have the river to yourself.
Tight lines everybody. Tight lines Ethan. Tight lines.