Transcript: Southwest Virginia Fishing Report with Matt Reilly
S5, Ep 138: Southwest Virginia Fishing Report with Matt Reilly
2023, Marvin S. Cash
The Articulate Fly
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 Southwest Virginia Fishing Report with Matt Riley. How you doing, Matt?
Matt:
[0:12] I'm doing just great, man. How are you?
Marvin:
[0:15] Just trying to stay out of trouble and starting to get ready for the holidays and took a look at your weather, and you're going to finally get a pretty decent amount of rain hopefully right before Thanksgiving. What are you seeing on the water?
Matt:
[0:27] Yeah, man. I think I live in a perpetual state of being surprised that it is the time of year that it is.
It's hard to believe that we're almost into the crazy time of end of the year holiday stuff.
But yeah, we've pretty much been muskie fishing day in and day out the last couple of weeks and still kind of same old, same old.
We've been seeing for the last month or so, it's just low water, clear water.
[1:05] You know, we've been getting some positive cloud cover and some little fronts and weather changes and stuff here and there.
I'm at the point where I'm kind of thankful for wind some days because it just means that it's not flat, calm, and sunny, which is pretty bad.
But the fishing's been good, more or less, been having a lot of success on that front.
Big change in the last couple, several weeks has been water temp.
We were still in the low 60s, probably, last time we talked, And we're, you know, dipping around the 50 degree mark now, you know, upper, upper forties, low fifties, depending on where you are and, and, uh, what the weather's been like the last couple of days.
Um, but, uh, yeah, it's, it's been fairly happy. Be happy to get some rain. That's for sure.
Marvin:
[2:07] Yeah, absolutely. So I'd imagine with that drop in temperatures, you probably, uh, are finding the small mouth really moving to their wintering spots by now, right?
Matt:
[2:16] They're definitely starting, yeah, and with the river being fairly low, too, I mean, there's sunny days, you'll still find them on flats and stuff like that, but, you know, yeah, they're definitely shuffling around a little bit.
I have not done a whole lot of smallmouth fishing in the last couple of weeks, just hasn't been, you know, kind of the thing I feel like I should be doing, and I got a bunch Musky Trips book regardless.
But yeah, things are definitely starting to move.
The other thing that kind of plays into that equation, the winter hole deal, is those places are going to end up to over winter are usually going to have some significant depth.
And when the river gets real, real low, a lot of those fish kind of pack into that stuff anyway.
So regardless of whether it's what time of year it is, those bigger, deeper kind of structure ridden places are gonna be hold dish anyway.
So it might kind of look like we're getting a jump on that, with the water temps dropping and the river's been pretty statically low for quite a while.
They're where they will be still in another month or so.
Marvin:
[3:42] Yeah, got it. Got a question for you from Brenner and just to kind of follow up on kind of the, we touched on the muskie thing a little bit, but he wanted to kind of get your thoughts on, you know, where would you expect to find muskie this time of year?
Matt:
[3:56] This time of year, they will definitely be in the river, if I had to guess.
But more than that, I kind of feel like, I think I said this four or five times, and I love saying it, I love people asking questions, but today in the boat, just talking about, well, muskies hang on this, well, muskies hang on that, you find them in shallow water.
You just have to think about the food source, and you can look at it pretty basically.
Just think about suckers, where you see them. Suckers are macro and bird red eaters from those parts.
So look at the warm water river that you're fishing musties in and think about, like, where would I find trout? Trout are bug eaters too.
When the water's warm, those suckers are gonna to be riffles, tail outs.
You'll see them in shallow shelves and stuff on the banks when there's sun on them.
[5:01] It's not gotten cold enough to where they've disappeared and packed into those deeper areas yet.
What that means is just that those fish can be pretty much anywhere.
They will tend to use bank cover a little bit more on average this time of year, I think, than they do in the wintertime, just because those suckers, those baitfish, are still using fairly shallow habitats at times.
[5:34] But yeah, I mean, they can be anywhere.
I know that's a bad answer, but like I was saying earlier, too, we're talking about the low water, deeper areas are always gonna be good bets just because some of those kinda...
Not that a muskie always needs deep water, because they certainly don't.
[6:00] But when there's not a whole lot of ceiling over them and the water's dropping still, they're gonna end up using some of those deeper areas just for some cover and shelter.
So those are a couple of things that I think about.
Trying to think what else there is. I mean...
Yeah, there's a lot more suckers, a lot more bass, a lot more minnows and sunfish in the river than there are muskies.
So, when you've got clear water, pay attention to that stuff.
Look and see where you're seeing that stuff. Usually by the end of November, you'll quit seeing it.
It's all gone to bed, and that's when you can kind of start to think that those fish are probably condensing in the classic places, the places that they'll be for a couple months in the winter.
So, that's kind of how I break it down. But I really don't rule out a whole lot this time of year.
It's just knowing where fish should be and spending your time there.
That's the name of the game.
Marvin:
[7:09] Yeah, so does that mean you would probably have an approach to cover more water this time of year than you would maybe in two months?
Matt:
[7:18] Yeah, man, I hate the term cover water.
It is what it is, but I'm not just floating down the river blasting the bank from point A to point B.
It's still using your head.
You're looking at, well, water's two and a half feet down from where it should be.
There's a nice log over there, but there's only a foot of water and no real structure on the bottom.
I'll probably skip that. Spend time in the places that are just a lot fishier looking.
They have more cover and more shelter, more water over their heads.
[8:00] Again, the way you catch those things is spending time in the right places and fishing well.
So, definitely use your head, but to answer that question a little bit better.
I do, you know, if I have, you know, I might have 12 or 15 spots on a 7, 8 mile stretch of river that I'm going to fish this time of year, and in another month I might have half that, just because a lot of those kind of more, I guess, marginal, if you can call it that, areas that the fish are going to spend time in when the forage is up shallow or not real condensed, I'll still fish those because I don't want to rule out that there's not a fish there.
As things get colder, I won't be fishing some of those spots just because I know there's more fish in fewer areas, if that makes sense.
I'm more likely to look at a good -looking, smaller BC spot and say, yeah, let's go fish that than I will be in another month or two, if that makes any sense.
Marvin:
[9:15] You know, fair enough. And I won't ever say cover water again on this podcast.
Matt:
[9:19] So, yeah, let that be a lesson to you.
Marvin:
[9:22] Yeah. You got me.
Matt:
[9:24] And, you know, I'll say it at some point next time we talk and then you can throw that in my face.
Marvin:
[9:29] That's all good. Yeah. Well, I'll have to put a sticky note here on the computer monitor so I don't forget.
But, you know, folks, we love questions on the Articulate Fly.
You can email them to us or DM us on social media.
And, you know, as we always do, if I use your question, I'll send you some articulate fly swag and you're getting into a drawing and, you know, talking to Matt before we start recording, I was like, well, gosh, you know, we're heading into the holiday season.
So next time we're together, we're going to have the drawing.
And so Matt, you want to let folks know what's on the table.
Matt:
[9:59] Yeah, man, I think I'm gonna do just kind of a normal deal, put a little swag pack together, some stickers, and a little kind of small mouth sampler fly box, and some ride company coupons, etc., whatever else I have sitting on my desk that looks like something somebody might want.
But those flies, I like to put a member of each team that I employ throughout the season, a couple different bait fish patterns and bottom dredging patterns and top water options in there just to give people a little starter pack.
So that's probably what I'll do, certainly what I'll do now that I'm telling you that.
The ones I've given out in the past, people have been pretty happy about it, so I'll keep doing that.
Marvin:
[11:03] Well, there you go. And before I let you hop, I know you're just booking away.
And I bet you probably within the next two weeks, we'll have some kind of holiday.
Get your dates picked. Do you want to let folks know what you have available and how to get in touch with you and all that kind of good stuff?
Matt:
[11:21] Yeah, we... The fall and winter is... Still got some openings here and there for musky fishing, smallmouth, trout, et cetera.
That's a good... This is a good time of year unless you're like, absolutely, I want to go musky fishing.
I want to go learn that or try to get a first fish or whatever, if you're open to options, let's just talk about that, because there's a lot that can be done this time of year.
But otherwise, man, the summer, spring, smallmouth stuff's already been booking like crazy.
So, you know, I say it a lot, and I don't mean to make it like a threat, but definitely talk to me if you're thinking about something maybe next year, because I always want to get in as many people as I can before things get too thin.
Marvin:
[12:24] Yeah, well, there you go. Well, listen, folks, as I always say, fall is my favorite time of the year to be on the water.
But this time, before we talk again, we'll have had Thanksgiving, so I want to wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving and a happy Thanksgiving, Matt.
Matt:
[12:38] Yeah, man, happy Thanksgiving.
Marvin:
[12:40] Tight lines, everybody.